Installation view of Projects 90: Song Dong. The Museum of Modern Art, NY, 2009. Photo: Jason Mandella.

A moving installation titled Waste Notby the Beijing-based conceptual artist Song Dong currently occupies the MoMA's Atrium. Organized by Barbara London and Sarah Suzuki, it consists of the entire belongings of Song Dong's mother spread out across the floor of the atrium—including the frame of her small wooden house. Raised during the cultural revolution and following its wu jin qi yong, or "waste not" dictum, the artist’s mother seems to have thrown very little away during her lifetime—a fact that, while effective within the restrictions and scarcity of the early years of the Cultural Revolution, became problematic as the country entered a period of relative affluence and a greater range of goods became available.

It is touching to observe the scraps of fabric dutifully preserved alongside little bits of thread and heavily used shoes of her now-adult children. Alongside the wall of the exhibition, Song Dong’s mother’s writings make for a poignant description of the process of doing the laundry in 1950s Beijing, where soap was rationed—a fact that led her to save soap bars throughout the years. “Some of the soap [that is included in the exhibition] is older than Song Dong,” she declared.

The careful preservation of what to most Westerners and a later generation of Chinese would appear as junk brilliantly exemplify what amounts to a completely different relation to the material world—one where every single object shows the signs of heavy wear and is saved no matter its value.

Update: Holland Cotter just wrote a beautiful review of the piece in the New York Times, which I strongly recommend!

Francesca