New York-based contemporary artist Tom Sachs has taken over Brooklyn Museum’s Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Pavilion, turning it into a living sound system through a series of 18 sculptural boom boxes. The Tom Sachs: Boombox Retrospective exhibition in turn hovers somewhere between art and science, melding the functional and mythological.

Sachs’ unique DIY aesthetic is here centered on ritual and symbolism, as he has utilized numerous everyday objects to bring his vision to life. The boomboxes aren’t solely for show, however. They activate the museum’s entrance through a collection of eclectic sound experiences that have been curated by Sachs, as drawn from the rich musical history of Brooklyn.

The Tom Sachs: Boombox Retrospective exhibition is live now through August 14, as public programs will also run alongside the installation, featuring live DJ sets

Tom Sachs: Boombox Retrospective, 1999–2016 features eighteen works that highlight the artist’s ability to inventively transform ordinary, everyday materials into art. With wit and ingenuity, he creates boom box sculptures that play music and activate the space, turning it into an immersive sound environment. The work is programmed with playlists that go on sequentially throughout our public hours.

The installation includes Toyan’s (2002), a group of speakers eight feet tall by twelve feet across inspired by Jamaican sound systems, and Presidential Vampire Booth (2002), complete with a stocked bar and Presidential seal. Sachs’s work is crafted from a wide range of materials such as plywood, foamcore, batteries, duct tape, wires, hot glue, and solder.

Tom Sachs: Boombox Retrospective, 1999–2016 is organized by Eugenie Tsai, John and Barbara Vogelstein Curator of Contemporary Art, Brooklyn Museum.

An earlier version of this exhibition, entitled Tom Sachs: Boombox Retrospective 1999–2015, opened in January 2015 at The Contemporary Austin.

This exhibition is generously underwritten by Jill and Jay Bernstein.

Generous support is provided by Jeffrey Deitch for public programming and by Sperone Westwater for the Boombox Brochure.