On the left side next to the exit of the Exhibition In the Name of Flowers of Pearl Art Museum, there is a nine-meter-long “valley” of black granite decorated with flowers. This is artist Li Mingwei’s work The Mobile Garden. Each audience can take one of the flowers but he or she needs to obey the rule set by the artist that after the audience leave the museum, he or she should walk on the road that is different from the usual one and give the flower to a stranger passing by. When you decide to pick the flower from the garden, the garden begin to travel with you.
Exhibition of The Mobile Garden by Li Mingwei at the Pearl Art Museum
Speaking of the inspiration of creating the work, Li Mingwei said, “When I sat by the riverside of Rhone River in Lyons and read a book of Lewis Hyde, I saw hundreds of pieces of rose petals flowing from the upstream to downstream. I was touched by the scene and decided to do the plan named The Mobile Garden, enabling the flowers to flow in the streets and on the roads. Let audiences take flowers from the museum and spread them to the outside world.”
Audiences are picking flowers
Li Mingwei considered the relationship of gifting, intimacy, and trust among people via The Mobile Garden. Flowers in the “valley” is a gift from the nature. Picking a flower and sending it to a stranger passing by is a gift of art. A flower makes closer relationship between people and conveys goodwill and happiness. Both the flower receiver and sender will have a different mode.
In our daily life, flowers are usually sent as gifts to express our best wishes and blessings. Lily represents purity, carnation represents family love, and violet represents missing somebody. Different flowers have different meanings. At the afternoon of this Saturday, children will be invited to the Heart Hall of the Pearl Art Museum to create their unique flowers with colorful papers and pigments using creative techniques. They can name the flowers and give meanings to them. They can also send these flowers to strangers met in the museum or book store companied by the instructors.
Wei Qian
Visual Art Director of Caran d'Ache China
Principal reviewer of Caran d'Ache Painting Contest in China for Children and Youngsters
Member of Chinese Art Education Panel of SNAA Visual Art Rank Examination Committee
Wu Hao
Glass artist
PhD candidate of design studies of Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts
Swiss Nobleness Art Academy (short for SNAA), located in Zurich of Switzerland and dedicated to improving professional expertise and teaching techniques of visual and performing art.
