For her first solo exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, Martha Rosler (Brooklyn, New York) will present her work Garage Sale in The Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium from November 17 to 30, 2012. Rosler held the Garage Sale’s first iteration, Monumental Garage Sale, in 1973 in the student gallery of the University of California, San Diego. She advertised this controversial work as a garage sale in local newspapers and as an art event within the local arts scene. Clothes, books, records, toys, costume jewelry, personal letters, art works, and other mementos, as well as soft-core pornographic magazines and empty welfare-food containers were displayed on racks and tables for visitors to browse and buy, after haggling with the artist over the price. Rosler’s Garage Sale implicates visitors in face-to-face transactions within a secondary, informal cash economy—exactly like garage sales held outside the museum setting. On select weekends from May 12 until summer, you can be a part of this work by donating your castoffs, no-longer-wanted objects, bric-a-brac, and odd items. Click the link to the left for more information on drop off times and locations.
