The Art of the Garage Sale

Over the last two weeks, Martha Rosler's Meta-Monumental Garage Sale collapsed the distinction between high art and the art of the haggle in no less then the atrium of the Museum of Modern Art. This got me wondering: when might garage sale purchases become works of art? From Christian Marclay's record cover montages to Jayson Musson's coogi sweater canvases to Carol Bove's bookshelf sculptures, contemporary artists demonstrate that the answer is more often than one might think. For these artists, aesthetic contemplation exists everywhere, and they demonstrate that inspiration lies in garage sales and art museums alike.