Writing the unspoken 1999
Installation comprising wood, steel, light fittings, glass, writing paper & implements, envelopes, cushion
Dimensions variable, components:
3 structures: 290 x 170 x 231cm (each)
Collection: The artist

Inspired by Buddhist ritual and language, Lee Mingwei’s Writing the unspoken is reliant upon the personal involvement of his audience. The artist says: ‘How often, when we encounter another person, do we leave things unsaid, often the most important things, the things we will carry inside for years afterward, things which are insistent and haunting, yet which remain unexpressed until the ears they seek are beyond reach? ... My goal is to give visitors a deep and unexpected experience of certain inner experiences which they share with others, of feelings which are deeply and commonly human. The outer form of those experiences is only a device, albeit a beautiful one, for making this possible. It requires no faith, only the willingness to read, to write, to participate in an unnamed ritual of release.’

Artist's statement:

My artistic language is primarily that of awareness, internal experience, and interaction. It is intended to raise questions about what art is and can be, about how it enters our immediate experience and how it transforms our perception of past and future experiences. It is about bringing greater awareness to ordinary things, transforming our perceptions of them, our way of thinking and feeling about them, and our actions in relation to them.

These issues appear in my work not only in a focus on nurturing interactions, but also in a focus on process as opposed to result, and on the changing world of feelings and ideas as opposed to that of the more permanent world of objects. My works are more temporal than spatial, like music and dance, but they are primarily interpersonal, relying more on the movements of mind and heart than on those of the body or instruments. My spaces are temporary and minimal and intended to facilitate the subtle influences of interpersonal encounter on one's inner world.

How often, when we encounter another person, do we leave things unsaid, often the most important things, the things we will carry inside for years afterward, things which are insistent and haunting, yet which remain unexpressed until the ears they seek are beyond reach? The Letter Writing Project provides space and opportunity for participants to express these verbal ghosts. The three booths in the Letter Writing Project invite visitors to reflect and write on three different things -- gratitude, insight, and forgiveness. The first will ask the visitor to write about something for which s/he feels grateful. The second will ask the visitor to write about something which has led to an important insight. The third will ask the writer to ask forgiveness from someone the writer has injured, or to offer forgiveness to someone who hurt the writer and still feels guilty about this.

Within each booth is a writing surface and materials. Visitors will be invited to sit, stand, or kneel at the table and write what is appropriate there. They may then seal it into an addressed or unaddressed envelope, or choose not to seal the envelope so that other participants may read their words. Letters with address will be mailed by the museum; those without addresses will be saved by the artist and later burned in a special ritual. Those letters which are left open will not only provide inspiration and example to other visitors, but will also make clear how common our feelings of gratitude, insight, regret, and forgiveness are. The visitor leaves feeling relieved of an old burden, aware that s/he has helped future visitors to shed burdens of their own, and more a part of humanity.

I realize that, to Western audiences, the outer form of this project may seem rather alien and Zen-ish, but Buddhism, especially in its Chan and Zen forms, is more a way of living than a religion in the Western sense. Huxley saw this when he characterized Buddhism as "transcendental pragmatism." In the West one encounters many of Buddhism's themes in the writings of Thoreau and the Transcendentalists, in Quaker faith and practice, and in interpersonal, existential, and humanistic psychology. My goal is to give visitors a deep and unexpected experience of certain inner experiences which they share with others, of feelings which are deeply and commonly human. The outer form of those experiences is only a device, albeit a beautiful one, for making this possible. It requires no faith, only the willingness to read, to write, to participate in an unnamed ritual of release.