The audience's freedom parallels the lack of press freedom, the denial of speech, experienced by so many. It's the kind of sign I'd like to see after dying. It speaks of comfort, of transportation and transformation, of treating a space in a certain manner and in turn being respected by that space. Placed at the base of each of the seven structures, which in their circle constitute Lee Mingwei's Shrine Project , the sign is part of invitation to look into other's lives. The Shrine Project is at once a public and a private space - strangers wander, peering into the shelves, the amber lighting enabling them to glimpse what other strangers find sacred.
People climb and smile, sharing in sharing in other's secret.
After ascension you not only are able to engage with an individual's sacred object, but watch others do the same on their own shrine, and look down at others, staring through screened bases of the shrines at objects already presented, or awaiting their turn. Out of the sky Postcards never have enough room. Or Mark Lewis' North Circular , an intense video where your eye travels from a panorama to detail without a sense of movement. Or - well, so much. The Sky is the Limit is not an adventurous exhibition.