For almost forty years, Martha Rosler has been hosting garage sales of the standard American variety wherein visitors may browse through random assortments of used goods, from books and dishes to lingerie and porn, in the hopes of scoring something on the cheap. Unsuspecting shoppers are likely to have a purely commercial experience, haggling with Rosler and prowling for the finery hidden among the tchotchkes, while participants familiar with her work as an artist may notice that there’s more going on than just an exchange of goods for money — the questions of desire and consumption, reflections on sentimentality and personal attachment to material objects — that Rosler is hoping people will consider.

Rosler’s most recent iteration of the piece, the “Meta-Monumental Garage Sale” is currently underway (until November 30) in the MoMA Marron Atrium, turning the space into a retail zone, where visitors have the rare opportunity to take home a piece of the art. ARTINFO visited the sale and spoke with Rosler, the show’s chief curator Sabine Breitwieser, and some of the sale’s happy customers.