Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary @ Mad Museum

September 27, 2008 - February 15, 2009

Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary will be the inaugural exhibition at the Museum of Arts & Design when it opens in a new building at 2 Columbus Circle in September 2008. The exhibition features work by 50 international established and emerging artists from all five continents who create objects and installations comprised of ordinary and everyday manufactured articles, most originally made for another functional purpose. For a complete artist list, click here.

The exhibition includes works by well known designers, Ingo Maurer, Tejo Remy, and the Campana Brothers as well as internationally acclaimed artists, such as Tara Donovan, Xu Bing, El Anatsui, and Do Ho Suh.

Highlights from the show include American artist Tara Donovan's Bluffs, a group stalagmite shaped structures made of clear plastic buttons delicately placed one on top of the other. Do Ho Suh, a Korean artist creates a jacket made of military dog tags, portraying the way a solider is part of a larger troop.

Paul Villinski, an American, creates beautiful butterflies out of his old record collection, producing a "soundtrack" of his life. English artist Susie MacMurray used yellow rubber washing gloves, turned them inside out and stitched onto a calico form to create an imposing out-sized dress.

Other featured works are made from buttons, spools of thread, artificial hair, used high-heeled shoes, plastic spoons and forks, shopping bags, and 25-cent coins to mention only a few.

The exhibition surveys the rich artistic landscape of much contemporary art, in which hierarchies among art, craft, and design are disregarded. In addition, the exhibition examines the ways in which artists transform our world, respond to contemporary cultural paradigms, and comment on global consumerism.

Paul Villinski, My Back Pages, 2006-2008
Vintage vinyl records, record player, wire, record covers
Dimensions variable
Photo: Anna Beeke

Do Ho Suh
Metal Jacket, 1992-2001
3,000 dog tags on U.S. military jacket fabric liner
60 x 50 x 15 in.
Courtesy of Danielle and David Ganek
Photo: Courtesy of the artist; Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York

Susie MacMurray, A Mixture of Frailties, 2004
Latex washing up gloves, calico and a tailor's dummy
72 3/4 x 128 in.
Collection of the artist
Photo: Susie MacMurray

Susie MacMurray, A Mixture of Frailties (detail), 2004
Latex washing up gloves, calico, tailor's dummy
72 3/4 x 128 in.
Collection of the artist
Photo: Susie MacMurray

Tara Donovan
Bluffs, 2007
Buttons, glue
48 x 24 x 45 in.
Courtesy of PaceWildenstein, New York
Photo: Kerry Ryan McFate

MUSEUM OF ARTS AND DESIGN
2 COLUMBUS CIRCLE
NEW YORK, NY 10019 212.299.7777