A closeup of Stuart Haygarth's "Spectacle" chandelier, made entirely from used eyeglasses. Photo credit: Jeff J. Mitchell / Getty Images.
Last year New York’s Museum of Arts and Design moved into a gleaming white cube on Columbus Circle, giving no hint of its former identity as the American Craft Museum. But this popsicle-stick-and-glitter past helped me make sense of the current exhibit called “Second Lives.”
It demonstrates new uses for everyday things, and had me look at the rummage pile anew. (The exhibit continues through April 19. No photos were allowed; to see the best images, see the site here.)
The delight at MAD was in sighting an item that looked like your typical modern-art installation and, upon a closer look, finding it composed of things that might reside in my apartment: a tapestry made from high-end clothing labels, miniature trees cut from paper shopping bags, a chaise lounge soldered from quarters, a portrait assembled from standard black hair combs.
Many of these projects were so attractive and easily reproduced that they could easily be commercialized. Why couldn’t IKEA sell chandeliers made from old eyeglasses? Or Target sell Buddha statuettes sculpted from phone books?
The exhibit asks, Why dig up new stuff from the ground? The material you need is right here!
As I left I brainstormed what art I could make out of the items that collect in the apartment no matter what I do. Light covers from plastic Food Emporium bags? Light fixtures from 7-Up cans? What could I confect from all my old MetroCards?
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