Project Mah Jongg

This unique exhibition explores the traditions, history, and meaning of the game of mah jongg in Jewish-American life from the 1920s to today. 

The game of mah jongg is explored in dynamic formats throughout the exhibition, including 20th century popular objects and a visitor-activated soundscape that features clacking tiles, exclamations from games by Jewish-American and Chinese-American players, reminiscences, and vintage music. Large-scale graphics by Isaac Mizrahi, Maira Kalman, Bruce McCall, and Christoph Niemann illustrate mah jongg as ongoing muse for contemporary artists. A game table at the core of the exhibition invites visitors to engage in the continuing tradition.

The exhibition serves as historical treatment of the topic, a placeholder for memory, a generator of whimsy, and a stage set for the game’s continuation. The environment conveys how mah jongg is much more than a game: it is a carrier of fantasy, identity, memory, and meaning.

The exhibition runs through the end of October 2013.