Objects of Value
November 21 2008 - February 22, 2009
This exhibition deals with the myriad ways in which contemporary artists have approached the issue of economic value. At the heart of this topic lies a constellation of deceptively simple questions: How is value defined and determined? Does it correspond to a given object's intrinsic qualities or is it a pure construction? Most importantly, what do the things we have chosen to value reveal about our culture and society?
Many of the selected works analyze, dissect and destabilize the relationship between an object's value and either the substance from which it is made or the means by which it is exchanged and distributed. In some cases this scrutiny results in a literal or symbolic neutralization of the object's own value, as in instances in which "opulent" materials (diamonds, paper money, precious metals, preexisting artworks) are used to render objects associated with cheapness, "low culture," even poverty and strife. A subset of works in the exhibition tie value to more abstract considerations than material, drawing from an object's emotional or religious significance, or harnessing the alchemical transformation of human labor into value. The latter issue relates to the important concept of the human body as an object-site for valuation, which has been taken up by philosophers from Kant and Marx to Hegel, Habermas and Foucault.
Some of the works in the exhibition take ardent political positions - critiquing the market for luxury goods (including art), or underscoring anxieties about the current global economic landscape (rising food prices, etc.) - while others simply poke fun at the sometimes slippery lines between luxury and decadence, greed and good taste. More than an attempt to highlight any ethical dimensions underpinning valuation, however, the exhibition is conceived as a focused exercise in the study of material culture: an investigation into the role played by a specific category of objects and materials, and the special power they wield, within contemporary society.
Objects of Value will feature works by approximately 20 artists including Cory Arcangel, Walead Beshty, Dario Escobar, Jae Leimer, Josiah McElheny, Wangechi Mutu, Seth Price, Wilfredo Prieto, Santiago Sierra, Rirkrit Tiravanija and Carey Young. Slotted for MAM's Plaza-Level Gallery, the exhibition will combine works from the MAM collection with works on loan from various public and private sources.