When does a garage sale become a performance? When it’s held at the Museum of Modern Art.
For the past two weekends, New Yorkers have been going to MoMA to donate their unwanted items for an upcoming performance “garage sale.”
The Meta-Monumental Garage Sale exhibition is the brainchild of Brooklyn-based artist Martha Rosler. She is asking people to donate “strange’’ items that she will then display and actually sell in the Donald B. and Catherine Marron Atrium between Nov. 17 and Nov. 30.
“The point is to get the public to interact with the artist. We hope the public is not just a passive viewer,” said Margaret Doyle, director of communications for MoMa.
Alicia Root, 35, who works in finance and lives in Nolita, came to the museum yesterday to donate a set of steel drums she purchased online for $75.
“It was harder than it looked,” Root said of the drums. “Now I have a ukulele.”
Other contributions include a porcelain artichoke, T-shirt and lots of books.