MoMA “For Kids”

Recently, (before COVID-19 quarantined all of us) I had the amazing opportunity to go to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. This piece of artwork was by far my favorite. The exhibit was simple, consisting of dioramas of houses. Before reading the description of the piece, it could be very easily overlooked as it is not intricate or particularly flashy and eye-catching. After reading the description, the viewer learns that this particular artwork is a teamwork between the artist of Chen Zhen and the homeless children of Brazil. The point of the piece was for these homeless children to describe their dream homes and the artist then took their creative ideas to build these houses in a sort of “neighborhood” using candles and wooden chairs. The artist wanted to show the “divisive” and “inequitable” aspects of the community that these children could possibly dream of. He wanted to show how even though these children are homeless, they are still able to dream big and come up with creative designs and ideas for their ideal houses. I love this concept and the reasoning behind everything the artist did. He wanted to show the different ideas of these children and show the diverse environment of the city that they live in and the city that they then “produced.” Another interesting aspect of this whole piece is the questions that the description asks at the end. The questions ask the viewer what their dream home would look like and what materials they would use to build it. These questions lead to more interaction with the piece, a factor I really enjoyed.