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Roof Garden Commission Turns Instruments into Art
April 15, 2025, 12:44.58 am ET

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Photos: Cititour.com

The Met’s Roof Garden Commission returns for its final installment before a years-long hiatus—with an installation that’s all about sound. Ensemble, by Jennie C. Jones, is on view from April 15 to October 19, 2025, turning the museum’s rooftop into a sculptural symphony of form and silence.

Jones, known for blending minimalist abstraction with Black avant-garde music, reimagines three string instruments as large-scale sculptures: a reclining zither, a towering Aeolian harp, and a doubled one-string, each stripped down to pure shape and tone. Rendered in deep reds with exposed tuning hardware and wire, the pieces hum with potential energy, even as they sit quietly in place.

With travertine-like concrete bases that echo the architecture of The Met itself, Ensemble creates a physical and conceptual bridge between the Museum’s past and its future. It also marks the final Roof Garden Commission before the space closes for construction of the new Oscar L. Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing, set to reopen in 2030.

Until then, this rooftop symphony stands as a powerful, poetic finale.


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