The Road to Minimalism / by Mirena Rhee

Some time ago I went to Japan and had near nirvana on the tatami floor in the middle of July in Arashyama, in Kyoto, looking out to one of the famous Zen gardens. I wrote a book of poems and photographs of my experience. Since then I left my 6 figure job, moved to New York city and took on a systematic journey of getting rid of my possessions.

Minimalism allowed me to focus on making artwork that I can share with many people and literally the entire city but which requires much time and energy. I made an interesting observation that a lot of my wealthy friends in the Bay Area had no contact with many people because they used the walls of their homes and their estates as the barrier to entry for strangers.

Moving and getting rid of my stuff, my art became very people centric, and I became very people centric as my possessions no longer were central to my human experience. I make installations in central park which can be enjoyed by both homeless people and wealthy uptown people, and we can discourse together literally on the sidewalk.

The art is resource and brain power intensive and includes planning and logistics. I also draw, paint and make animations. I do not have any time for domestics like cooking, cleaning and running a home. All my possessions are currently tools of my trade and art/materials, of course clothes;), haha well, not gonna run around in a loincloth, own of course a few simple and favorite things like Tchotchke, utensils and books. I made a project/ a visual list which reflected on all the mass of things I donated and sold, including my car ( which used to be my favorite possession ) and furniture. This has made moving and traveling easy, and there's a lot of room in my consciousness to simply indulge in thinking and daydreaming about subjects and projects, which I enjoy.