The “Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary” exhibition gave a second live to the “useless” items in our world. In this exhibition, lots of things, like buttons, chopsticks, catalogs, bottles, that got thrown out everyday in our life were put together in a unique way so it will form a new object. After seeing this exhibition, I would say the relationship between parts and whole is that parts form the whole through different arrangements and connecting materials. Parts are only a small portion of the big piece but it is the foundation of the whole piece. Using this foundation, the artist decides how to connect them, through glue, strings, etc., and arrange it to result in the final piece of work that they desire.

The piece that caught my eye the minute I walked into the exhibition was “Bluffs” by Tara Donovan. This art piece uses buttons and glue to create a coral reef. The buttons was stacked one on top of the other, with the glue to hold it firm. I didn’t realize it was buttons first seeing it. It looked like white, clear crystals to me, until I look at the signs next and was stock at the material use to create it. This button pieces are the parts and the coral reef is the whole. If the artist decides to remove a part of the reef out, the visual effect wouldn’t be as great and it might come out differently. The buttons are laying flat, one stacking on top of another to create the reef I saw. Imagine if the artists decide to have threads going through the buttons’ holes or them laying vertically, what will it be then?

The next piece of work that caught my attention was the “Perpetual Stream” by Steven Deo, right next to the “Bluffs”. The artist uses pieces of a Jigsaw puzzle pieces, feather and cave to create a 3-dimensional model of two people. I think it was pretty interesting how the artist turn a 2-dimensional puzzle to create a 3-dimensional like figure. This pieces show the outcome of different arrangement clearly. The artist uses what would originally create a 2-dimension picture to create a 3-dimensional statue by having the puzzle standing up.

Another piece that took the spotlight was the “Quarter Lounge 2008” by Johnny Swing. This is a chair that was made out of quarters and stainless steel. This chair uses the coins that everyone has to make an item that everyone uses everyday. The chair was beautifully arrangement to create a shape of the chair. The connecting material that held the object together was stainless steel, which should be a pretty stable material. As I was looking at this, I started to think if it’s possible that the quarters in this piece of work were used to create the coral reef in “Bluff”. Will the outcome be as attracting as the “Bluffs”?

The pieces in this exhibition were all given a second image through the hands of the artists. After looking at this exhibition, it makes me wonder what the limit is in creating the complex out of the basics.