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One person’s trash is another person’s . . . art?

From a similar piece: the Travelling Garage Sale. La Mamelle Gallery, San Francisco, USA, 1977

Spring marks the beginning of unwanted cleaning advice, but for a lot of us whose hoarding sensibilities can get out of control, there’s finally a reason to clean out our closets, for the sake of art. Brooklyn-based artist, Martha Rosler is bringing her crowd-sourced installation piece — or in laymen terms, a garage sale — to the MoMa’s atrium this November. In order to create her piece, she’s issued an open call for donations for everything from clothing, jewelry, records, books and propaganda, to posters, sports equipment and appliances. But “no food or other perishable items, liquids, weapons, or toxic or hazardous materials,” so leave your guns at home folks. Besides, what else are you going to do with those 27 bridesmaid dresses and Insane Clown Posse shot glasses? You can drop some off this Saturday and Sunday even.

The museum has already started taking donations from its staff, but there will be additional pick-ups this Saturday and Sunday from 1pm-4pm at the 54th Street entrance of MoMA; and then at PS1 in Long Island City on June 3, from 1pm-4pm; as well as June 2, from 1:00-4:00 p.m at their 54th street museum entrance. Depending on how much junk they get, they may extend collection dates through June.

The best part is, all of these items will be available for sale in the Atrium, where you can bargain and wise-talk with the artist herself. All the proceeds will go towards charity.

Rosler initially conceived and presented her “Meta-Monumental Garage Sale” back in 1973 at University of California, San Diego. While the donations may be less of the macramé variety, Rosler’s concept continues to exemplify the idea that people are the sum of their parts. MoMA’s Meta-Monumental garage sale will take place Nov. 17 to 30.

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  • Very cool! Martha's a really great artist known for a lot of her quirky performance art pieces. I did not know she was Brooklyn based.