Core77

Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary will be the inaugural exhibition at the Museum of Arts & Design when it opens to the public today at it's new home, 2 Columbus Circle. 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all five continents who create objects and installations comprised of ordinary and everyday manufactured articles, most originally made for another functional purpose.

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

More after the jump.

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 Villinskii, 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.

Second Lives will also be accompanied by a 250-page, fully illustrated catalogue, which will include 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 will be accompanied by full-color illustrations of their work.

For a complete artist list, click here