Doh-Ho Suh’s “Metal jacket,” center, is made from Army dog tags. 

Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary will be the inaugural exhibition at the Museum of Arts & Design when it opens in a new building at 2 Columbus Circle in September 2008. The exhibition features work by 50 international established and emerging artists from all five continents who create objects and installations comprised of ordinary and everyday manufactured articles, most originally made for another functional purpose.

An installation view of “Second Lives.”

The exhibition includes works by well known designers, Ingo Maurer, Tejo Remy, and the Campana Brothers as well as internationally acclaimed artists, such as Tara Donovan, Xu Bing, El Anatsui, and Do Ho Suh.

"Sound Wave" (2007) by Jean Shin, center.

Highlights from the show include American artist Tara Donovan's Bluffs, a group stalagmite shaped structures made of clear plastic buttons delicately placed one on top of the other. Do Ho Suh, a Korean artist creates a jacket made of military dog tags, portraying the way a solider is part of a larger troop.

A chandelier made out of recycled eyeglasses by Stuart Haygarth.

Paul Villinski, an American, creates beautiful butterflies out of his old record collection, producing a "soundtrack" of his life. English artist Susie MacMurray used yellow rubber washing gloves, turned them inside out and stitched onto a calico form to create an imposing out-sized dress.

Terese Agnew’s photorealist image of a textile worker is made of entirely of clothing labels

Other featured works are made from buttons, spools of thread, artificial hair, used high-heeled shoes, plastic spoons and forks, shopping bags, and 25-cent coins to mention only a few.

“My Back Pages” (2006-2008) by Paul Villinski

The exhibition surveys the rich artistic landscape of much contemporary art, in which hierarchies among art, craft, and design are disregarded. In addition, the exhibition examines the ways in which artists transform our world, respond to contemporary cultural paradigms, and comment on global consumerism.

an austere patchwork cupboard made of scrap wood by Piet Hein Eek, right, and large hanging lamps fashioned from wire, light bulbs and old newspapers by Nnenna Okore, left.

Second Lives will be accompanied by a 250-page, fully illustrated catalogue, which will include essays by MAD curators David Revere McFadden and Lowery Stokes Sims, and an introduction by Director Holly Hotchner. Artist statements from each of the 50 artists in the exhibition will be accompanied by full-color illustrations of their work. The catalogue is being designed by Pentagram design, and will be available through the Museum Store.

Michael Rakowitz’s transformations of Middle Eastern fast food containers into close, slightly comical copies of the ancient artifacts now missing from the Baghdad museum.

Photos: Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times

Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary. September 27, 2008 - February 15, 2009

Susie MacMurray, A Mixture of Frailties, 2004. Latex washing up gloves, calico and a tailor's dummy. 72 3/4 x 128 in. Collection of the artist. Photo: Susie MacMurra