Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary

Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary is the inaugural exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Design in the new building at 2 Columbus Circle, which opened 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all five continents who create objects and installations comprised of ordinary and everyday manufactured articles, most originally made for another functional purpose.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 of stalagmite-shaped structures made of clear plastic buttons delicately placed one on top of the other. Paul Villinski, an American, creates beautiful butterflies out of his old record collection, producing a "soundtrack" of his life.

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.

Second Lives is accompanied by a 250-page, fully illustrated catalogue, which includes essays by MAD curators David Revere McFadden and Lowery Stokes Sims, and an introduction by Director Holly Hotchner. Artist statements from each of the 50 artists in the exhibition are accompanied by full-color illustrations of their work. The catalogue was designed by Pentagram Design, and is available through the Museum Store.

The Museum has created a cell phone audio tour for Second Lives featuring the voices of Curators David McFadden and Lowery Sims, as well as nine artists from the exhibition. Details on how to access that tour in the gallery and from home can be found here.

Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary is made possible by American Express, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts and The Greenwall Foundation.

Curators David McFadden, Chief Curator, and Lowery Sims, Curator

Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary
Kuratoren: David McFadden, Lowery Sims

Künstler: Terese Agnew, Boris Bally, Ingo Maurer, Tejo Remy, Fernando & Humberto Campana, Tara Donovan, Xu Bing, El Anatsui, Tamiko Kawata, Do-Ho Suh, Paul Villinski, Yuken Teruya ...