The Metropolitan Museum of Art's annual Roof Garden installation has arrived, this year with a commission from artist Lauren Halsey, who has created a site-specific piece that draws structural inspiration from the museum’s famous ground floor Temple of Dendur exhibit, complete with columns and sphinxes.
The work, titled the eastside of south central los angeles hieroglyph prototype architecture (I), is not a complete reflection of the ancient Egyptian structure, however – it features contemporary visual expressions and cultural references. What you see, according to The Met, comes from "the collective energy and imagination of the South Central Los Angeles Community where Halsey was born.” Even the sphinxes are based on real modern day figures: Halsey’s family.
Abraham Thomas, the curator of Modern architecture, design, and decorative arts at the museum, described the work as "an Afrofuturistic, ancient, funkified spaceship" that has landed in Manhattan.
You can find the large installation at The Met's Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, and take some time to really explore and walk through and around the pieces – you are likely to find something new at each pass. (And you can even see it from Central Park!)
The Roof Garden Commission: Lauren Halsey is on view at The Met from April 18th through September 22nd.
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