Swept Away at MAD

Highboy and Ladder Back by Jim Dingilian

New York’s Museum of Arts and Design shares the works of 25 international contemporary artists in Swept Away: Dust, Ashes, and Dirt in Contemporary Art and Design. On view from 7 February to 12 August 2012, the collection will showcase 34 site-specific pieces including installations, sculptures, performances, photographs, paintings and designs.

Burn Burn Burn (after) by Glithero

Swept Away takes a closer look at the eternal and emotional qualities of life’s transient materials. Using dust, ashes, soot, dirt, and organic matter as their medium, the featured artists create sophisticated and pensive works to speak to the fleeting quality of art and life, memory, loss, and the debris of essence we leave behind.

The exhibition includes works by Kim Abeles, Catherine Bertola, Phoebe Cummings, Zhang Huan, Maskull Lasserre, and Alexandre Orion, among others.

Swept Away Projects opens on March 6 as an extension of the show, and will include installations actively created in front of the museum’s visitors. By simply walking through the exhibition, guests will take part in the artisanship by gradually sweeping away the works.