The Metropolitan Museum of Art will adorn its rooftop garden this summer with big bunches of bamboo. The exhibit, appropriately titled “Big Bambú,” is site-specific and designed by Doug and Mike Starn—who have previously installed a similar exhibit in Beacon, NY.
The bamboo will be unveiled on April 27th (it will be up there til Halloween), and is expected to be around 100-feet long and 50-feet wide (and high). Visitors will be allowed to enter and interact with the structure; Starn says, “We need to make it so big in order to make us—all of us—feel small—or at least to awaken us to the fact that individually we’re not so big as we think."
Today, upon the museum's announcement, the NY Times has an article looking at what will be the 13th structure to sit atop the museum. The artists told the paper it "will evolve in three phases: first, the basic structure will be completed by the opening day; second, the eastern part will be built by the artists and rock climbers to a height of about 50 feet; third, the team will build the western part to about 40 feet high. Not only will visitors be able to watch the installation as it is constructed and walk through it, they will also be able to climb up the sides."
In years past the rooftop garden has welcomed works from Jeff Koons, Roxy Paine, and the late Sol LeWitt.
