Lee Mingwei’s form of Contemporary
Lee Mingwei’s “You Are Not a Stranger” exhibit has been in MOCA more than once now, or at least the work has been. They decided for the 50th anniversary to take four of the artist’s work and put it into its own area in the museum. Two of the works that the artist had throughout the exhibit were to force you to get to know a stranger. One of the works that is at the museum is called The Mending Project. Upon my visit to the museum, I got to first hand see this project and the scale of the installation was just beautiful. The artist has taken a custom made table and chairs and connected a pile of what looked like clothes or blankets to the wall with what seemed like hundreds of strands of thread. The arrangement looked beautiful because of all the thread being as many different colors that you could imagine just strung across the corner wall. But that wasn’t the only part of the project that was significant. The whole purpose of the table part was so people could sit across from each other whether they were friends, family or strangers and just have a conversation while being encouraged to bring in an article of clothing to fix up.
But that wasn’t the only part of Mingwei’s exhibition that put off a strong vibe. In the middle of the room showcased The Moving Garden. At first lance, it just looked like a really pretty place to hold all these colored flowers but when you walked over to the wall where they have the sign, you would notice a small holder filled with tiny bags and twist ties and the sign gave instructions on what the artist wanted done. The artist wanted the viewer to pick a flower from the exhibit and put the stem in the bag. From there, the person who took the flower would find someone, a stranger just out on the streets just having probably a normal day and they would give them the flower. Hence why it was called The Moving Garden. The flowers would travel away from the vases that were covered in the work that Mingwei had created as a way to get people to interact with each other.
Contemporary art can create a wide variety of emotions, whether they be good or not. These works by Mingwei are examples of how contemporary art can have a positive effect on the viewers. On multiple occasions you could look around at people and they would be carrying flowers from the exhibit. One time as I was walking to the Cleveland Museum of Art, I looked up at the sidewalk in front of me and saw the simple little flower from the museum. The person who took the flower had fulfilled the artist’s dream and giving the flower to a stranger. The lady who gave the flower away explained to the stranger the purpose of the flower and the artist’s wish. After they gave the flower away the two strangers hugged each other. It was all around just a really nice and warm feeling to witness up close. I couldn’t help but smile.
