Also known as yard sale, rummage sale, or moving sale, this is a common practice in Anglo-Saxon countries: it takes place when someone is moving or when there’s a need to recover living space. Transactions are informal, and low prices are part of the game or a pretext to raise funds.
In some areas of the United States, garage sales have been the driving force behind moments of social cohesion and a sense of belonging to the local community, becoming real events that regularly involve dozens and sometimes hundreds of families. A few weeks ago, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger promoted a large garage sale to help reduce the deficit of his administration.
In contemporary art, works inspired by consumption, recycling, leftovers, and waste are countless. For example, there’s Michael Landy, who, after inventorying all the objects he owned, displayed and destroyed them one by one in a public performance. The memory of his consumerist frenzy (the objects totaled 5,000) now rests in a book: Break Down. There’s also Tony Cragg, with his beautiful and evocative wall drawings made from pieces of colored trash (broken toys, dishes, and other items) that he collected on beaches. At MoMA in New York, the Waste Not exhibition by Song Dong is ongoing until September 7th. The installation consists of the entire contents of the artist’s mother’s house, objects she accumulated over fifty years, during a time when the concept of wu qi yong (don’t throw anything away) was a prerequisite for survival. The collected materials, from teacups to legless dolls, from buckets to oil cans to blankets, form a miniature landscape that visitors can walk through.