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American Morning

Look at Exhibit Where Everyday Items Being Used in Extraordinary Ways

Aired December 05, 2001 - 08:5   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Ever think a toothpick could be considered a work of art? How about aspirin?

Well, CNN's Jeanne Moos takes us to one exhibit where every day items are being used in extraordinary ways.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Why settle for using toothpaste on your teeth when you can squirt it on your walls and make them minty fresh?

(on camera): You can smell it.

DAN CAMERON, MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART: Look at the products. Well, yes. It's freshly made at each place.

MOOS (voice-over): And why just gnaw on a toothpick? Artist Tom Friedman used 30,000 of them to create a starburst that's a lot more attractive than picking your teeth. And don't just pop an aspirin, carve an aspirin.

CAMERON: It's self-portrait as a single aspirin.

MOOS: Tom Friedman's self-portrait. The artist himself is home in Massachusetts, but his work is on exhibit at the new Museum of Contemporary Art in New York.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Aspirin, wow!

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Is it really? Oh.

MOOS: Friedman likes using every day objects to make art.

(on camera): He took a garbage bag and put as many garbage bags as he could fit in it in the garbage bag.

(voice-over): About 3,000 of them. Instead of just eating spaghetti, Friedman attached them end to end, forming a continuous loop. Blowing bubbles is child's play compared to chewing 1,500 pieces of gum and molding them in a sink of warm water into a sleek sphere. And then there's soap with hair in it, but not just any hair.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Pubic hair all strung together?

MOOS: That's right.

CAMERON: So that there are actually several dozen of his hairs that have been very, very painstakingly organized into a spiral.

MOOS: Some laugh. Others backed off.

(on camera): I think that's a guy thing, that soap with the pubic hair.

CAMERON: I think it is, too. I think every guy can relate to that in the shower.

MOOS (voice-over): But not every guy can afford it. The soap sold at auction for $58,000. Curator Dan Cameron calls this Friedman's most difficult work.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Right there?

MOOS (on camera): Yes, well, don't get too close.

(voice-over): It's described as feces on pedestal, a tiny speck aimed at provoking the question...

CAMERON: How small can you go? At what threshold of your visibility can you go before it's no longer disturbing?

MOOS: And speaking of disturbing, this is a Friedman self- portrait made of construction paper showing the artist torn up in a motorcycle accident. There's a sweeter self-portrait on display made out of sugar cubes.

Friedman spent several years copying every word from a dictionary onto this paper, from woodpecker to daddy longlegs.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: It's manic.

MOOS (on camera): Manic?

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Manic.

MOOS (voice-over): If you've ever sharpened a pencil, you'll appreciate seeing the unbroken shaving from an entire pencil. Some of this art is considered conceptual. But if you think about it too much, you may need a pain reliever.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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