Material Exchange

  • Left Luggage, 2007

    Left Luggage, 2007

    Left Luggage, 2007Gallery 400, Chicago, IL Left Luggage was our contribution to the exhibition Pathogeographies: Other People’s Baggage, organized by Feeltank Chicago at Gallery 400. Using packing crates that are themselves left luggage, from the MCA’s Massive Change exhibition, Material Exchange designed the Left Luggage installation on the model of a baggage check. It houses,…

  • Provisional Library, 2007

    Provisional Library, 2007

    Provisional Library, 2007Contribution to Another Story, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL This universe, which is the same for all, has not been made by any god or man, but it always has been, is, and will be an ever-living fire, kindling itself by regular measures and going out by regular measures. -Heraclitus the Obscure…

  • Street Level Youth Media Workshop, 2007

    Street Level Youth Media Workshop, 2007

    Street Level Youth Media Workshop, 2007 [Design Build Workshop Leader]Chicago, IL Material Exchange collaborated with both Free Geek Chicago and Street Level Youth Media on a workshop to build two student-designed computer stations made out of recycled materials and computer parts. Some wood was collected from the storage space in the basement of Street Level, a couple of painted ply-wood…

  • Coat Check, 2007

    Coat Check, 2007

    Coat Check, 2007Pass it On: Connecting Contemporary Do-It-Yourself Culture, A+D Gallery of Columbia College, Chicago, IL For its contribution to DIY, Material Exchange offered not an artwork or an informational display, but a service. In the spirit of D.I.Y.-labeled alternatives to mainstream spheres such as those of music, urban farming, or political punditry, Material Exchange’s…

  • Biographical Extensions II, 2007

    Biographical Extensions II, 2007

    Biographical Extensions II, 2007Betty Rymer Gallery, Chicago, IL Biographical Extensions II was the second part of a two-part project that began at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. For three months prior to that exhibition we collected discarded and unwanted materials from various MCA waste streams to create a site- and material-specific installation. Material…

  • The Fortuitous Sequel to Martin Kippenberger’s Installation, 2007

    The Fortuitous Sequel to Martin Kippenberger’s Installation, 2007

    The Fortuitous Sequel to Martin Kippenberger’s Installation, 2007Experimental Station, Chicago, IL The Experimental Station hosted the First Putt-Putt Green Design Competition, organized and curated by Material Exchange. Area artists, designers, engineers, and school groups, submitted putting green designs, employing a range of circuitous and inefficient means to get the ball into the hole, out of…

  • Biographical Extensions I, 2006

    Biographical Extensions I, 2006

    Biographical Extensions I, 2006Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL For three months prior to this exhibition, Material Exchange collected discarded art-related materials from the MCA Store, warehouse, offices, grounds, dumpsters, and roof to create a site- and material-specific installation.Working with collaborators Alta Buden, Brendan Sullivan, Dani Henke, Danny Mansmith, David Wolf, Eric Newman, Julia Klein,…

  • Culture Walk, 2006

    Culture Walk, 2006

    Culture Walk, 2006Del Prado Building, Chicago, IL Featured in The Space Between at Hyde Park’s Del Prado Building (The Former Hyde Park Art Center), this installation entitled “Culture Walk” was comprised of materials salvaged from the Hyde Park Art Center, Sara Black’s MFA Thesis Exhibition, and the Museum of Contemporary Art.

  • Beyond Surplus: A Material Exchange Laboratory, 2006

    Beyond Surplus: A Material Exchange Laboratory, 2006

    Beyond Surplus: A Material Exchange Laboratory, 2006 [Design Build Workshop Leader]Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL In collaboration with designer Isabela Gould at the Illinois Institute of Technology. This design class was a plug-in laboratory for the Material Exchange network, designed to bridge between one donor institution ready to discharge waste materials, and one charity in…

  • Wockenklausur Sitting Room, 2005

    Wockenklausur Sitting Room, 2005

    Wockenklausur Sitting Room, 2005 Beyond Green: Toward a Sustainable Art, Smart Museum, Chicago, IL Featured in the exhibition Beyond Green: Toward a Sustainable Art, the pictured benches and table were designed and built by Material Exchange, at that time comprised of artists Sara Black and John Preus, using exhibition by-products from the Smart Museum of…