LIKE A WALK IN
THE SKY

This past weekend the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened it's rooftop to visitors with a curious sculpture of sixteen stainless steel framed… "bubbles"? Standing at 54 feet wide and almost 30 feet high, Cloud City, is part of the Met's rooftop sculpture program, currently in its 15th year.

The cutting edge brainchild of Argentinian artist Tomas Saraceno, Cloud City is a constellation of large, interconnected modules constructed with transparent and reflective materials which visitors may enter to experience panoramic views of central park and a high rise vision of manhattan's cityscape; all from within the various interiors of the modular structures. The alternately reflective, shined and transparent glass components create dizzying spatial illusions and a stunning aerial perspective of our picturesque city.

"What inspired me was the geometry of the soap bubbles or the foam, of how they connect one sphere to the other," says Saraceno. When asked about her experience inside Cloud City a visitor stated "It's pretty disconcerting. I keep losing my center of gravity and feeling like I am going to fall. It's very cool, but I wouldn't recommend having a drink before you get in here."

The exhibit is open, weather permitting, during regular museum hours till
November 4th 2012

Hailed simultaneously as a provocateur, prankster, and tragic poet of our times, Maurizio Cattelan has created some of the most unforgettable images in recent contemporary art. His source materials range widely, from popular culture, history, and organized religion to a meditation on the self that is at once humorous and profound. Working in a vein that can be described as hyperrealist, Cattelan creates unsettlingly veristic sculptures that reveal contradictions at the core of today’s society. While bold and irreverent, the work is also deadly serious in its scathing critique of authority and the abuse of power.

Maurizio Cattelan: All brings together virtually everything the artist has produced since 1989 and presents the works en masse, strung seemingly haphazardly from the ceiling of the Guggenheim's Frank Lloyd Wright rotunda. Hoisted by rope as if on a gallows, the suspended objects explicitly reveal the undertone of death that pervades the artist's work. More than just a powerful culmination of a career, this exhibition signifies its end. With the opening of Maurizio Cattelan: All, Cattelan announced his retirement from the art world, although what this means precisely remains to be seen.