99 Cents or Less

MOCAD, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit

Detroit | Michigan | USA

May 19, 2017 - Aug 06, 2017

A major group exhibition of ninety nine artists based in the United States, 99 Cents or Less addresses Detroit鈥檚 ongoing economic crisis and its 2013 bankruptcy鈥搕he largest municipal bankruptcy filing in the history of the United States. Four years after a federal judge approved Detroit鈥檚 bankruptcy-exit plan the city鈥檚 financial present and future are still in flux. This exhibition is a reflection on the realities of a city that was once one of the country鈥檚 wealthiest and most diverse. Speaking to Detroit鈥檚 place as a global industrial powerhouse by using materials from 99 cent stores, 99 Cents or Less hopes to make the connection between past, present, and future centers of production, and point to ways that artists can address how mass production has changed and will continue to change and evolve. As the consumer鈥檚 relationship with their everyday items has changed, so has the application and approach that artists take when incorporating these items in their work.

An expansive and diverse group of artists invited by Jens Hoffmann, Susanne Feld Hilberry Senior Curator at Large will be producing new works for display in the museum referencing Marcel Duchamp鈥檚 readymades, industrially produced consumer items that are manipulated via an intervention by the artist and Arte Povera鈥檚 use of often cheap and mundane materials to critique convention and the market .