The Roof Garden Commission:
Alicja Kwade, ParaPivot
Berlin-based artist Alicja Kwade has been selected to create a site-specific installation for The Met’s Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden. The Roof Garden Commission: Alicja Kwade, ParaPivot will be on view from April 16 through October 27, 2019.
For the Roof Garden Commission, Kwade has created two sculptures: ParaPivot I and II. These towering sculptures consist of powder-coated steel frames that intersect at oblique angles. Nestled within are nine massive spheres that float in apparent weightlessness. The carved and polished stones, each with a unique color and intricate patterning, are all different types and come from nine different countries, including hermelin from Norway and azul macaubas from Brazil. ParaPivot I and II are charged with the possibility of movement: their steel appendages, which fan outward around multiple axis points, seem to trace the orbital pathways of the globes. In this sense, they evoke an astrolabe, a scientific instrument invented in ancient Greece and adopted by Islamic astronomers in the medieval period to chart the trajectory of the stars and planets. Kwade’s sculptural ballet also calls to mind a miniature solar system, a piece of outer space that has settled temporarily on the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden.
#CantorRoof
April 16–October 27, 2019
The MET
The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof
Gallery 926
New York, United States
