Transience & Impermanence: Waste Nothing

Photo by Tony Napoli

The above photo was taken from above the Marron Atrium on the second floor of the Museum of Modern Art of the recent exhibit, "Projects 90: Song Dong." Beijing-based artist Song Dong (b. 1966) explores notions of transience and impermanence with installations that combine aspects of performance, video, photography, and sculpture. Projects 90, his first solo U.S. museum show, presented his recent work "Waste Not."

This was a collaboration first conceived of with the artist's mother, an installation consisting of the complete contents of her home, not "collected" or "gathered" but amassed over fifty years during which the Chinese concept of wu jin qi yong, or "waste not," was a prerequisite for survival. The assembled materials, ranging from pots and basins to blankets, oil flasks, and legless dolls, form a miniature cityscape that viewers can navigate around and through. It was a fascinatingly complex installation, almost like walking through the Pearl River store in SoHo, or a warehouse, everything neatly stacked and aesthetically organized.

The view from above gives it a particular resonance, retaining a curious zen quality, although the exhibit is based on possession for survival, rather than divestment to quell desire, yet at the same time suggesting the cityscape in more intrinsic and breathtaking detail.

--Brooklyn Beat