But this particular group tended more towards bemusement than ferocity, owing to the fact that the sales event was also a large-scale exhibition, performance art piece, and clever commentary on commodity fetishism by artist Martha Rosler, framed within the pristine white walls of The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). A re-staging of an event she originally conducted on campus as an postgraduate student in 1973, Meta-Monumental Garage Sale presents a classic American garage sale in the institution's largest, central atrium for a short two-week run on view through this Friday. A majority of the various bric-a-brac goods displayed may actually be purchased by the visiting public, and all proceeds go to charity.
The change and scale in venue alone, if not for Rosler's established body of work on everyday life, media, and the female experience, loads the current rendition with immense institutional critique. Meta-Monumental sits centre stage in a modern art museum that has long been considered traditional: a place where we are typically permitted to look but not touch, and buying is reserved for closed-door board meetings, high-profile auctions, or the souvenir shops conveniently located at the entrance and across the street.
All sits beneath a giant American flag, draped in the middle of the gallery space in sacred kitsch and earnest irony.
All sits beneath a giant American flag, draped in the middle of the gallery space in sacred kitsch and earnest irony
Martha Rosler: Meta-Monumental Garage Sale
The Museum of Modern Art
West 53rd Street, New York
