An intern in Cloud City

With tourist sea­son upon us, you might be tempted to avoid major attrac­tions like the Met, but be care­ful that you don’t cheat your­self out of a rare oppor­tu­nity.  Cur­rently on dis­play at the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Museum of Art’s Iris and B. Ger­ald Can­tor Roof Gar­den, Argen­tin­ian artist Tomás Saraceno’s “Cloud City” instal­la­tion fea­tures large, inter­con­nected mod­ules con­structed from trans­par­ent and reflec­tive mate­ri­als. The exhibit opened May 15 and runs through Novem­ber 4 (weather permitting).

“Cloud City” looks as if a hip mod­ern artist designed a play­ground for the moon but took a detour and landed on the roof of the Met.  Accord­ing to their web­site, the exhibit strives to expand “the ways in which we inhabit and expe­ri­ence our envi­ron­ment.” From a first-hand per­spec­tive, the instal­la­tion suc­ceeds in this endeavor. Both struc­turally and expe­ri­en­tially, “Cloud City” asks the viewer to con­tend with irreg­u­lar­i­ties in spa­tial orga­ni­za­tion and chal­lenge our assump­tions of lim­i­ta­tions in phys­i­cal design. As we embrace new ideas of build­ing sus­tain­able and resilient cities, this exhibit makes the prospect of inhab­it­ing new urban spaces feel excit­ing, not scary.

Vis­i­tors may view the exhibit at any­time from the Roof Gar­den, but a timed ticket (no extra charge*) is required for entry inside the instal­la­tion. Timed tick­ets are avail­able on the fourth floor through­out the day in 15-minute intervals–I arrived shortly before noon and received an entry ticket for 12:30 pm.

Timed ticket in hand, you enter the struc­ture via a small stair­case and are imme­di­ately sur­rounded by irreg­u­lar pan­els secured in place by a net­work of cables. The panels–some trans­par­ent, oth­ers reflective–interconnect to cre­ate mod­ules large enough to accom­mo­date sev­eral peo­ple. Most of the time while inside “Cloud City,” you are actu­ally ele­vated well above the roof level.  The pres­ence of sev­eral docents inside the struc­ture is reas­sur­ing; you never quite know when you’ll catch a sun­beam right in the eye, or when you’ll look down and real­ize that you’re high up in the air, sup­ported only by a trans­par­ent plat­form and some cables. I have no doubt about the sta­bil­ity of the struc­ture, but for those of us with weak stom­achs the expe­ri­ence is dis­con­cert­ing to say the least. “Cloud City” demands hyper­aware­ness of your body and the space through which it moves, stim­u­lat­ing feel­ings of cau­tion and play­ful­ness at the same time.

Every time I turned to take in a new angle, I had to ques­tion if whether what I was see­ing was a reflec­tion or “real.” On one plat­form, I found myself look­ing at the trees of Cen­tral Park in a mir­ror, then, just a few steps over I took the oppor­tu­nity to stop and gaze out of an open side, rest­ing my elbows while tak­ing in the city below. I didn’t fully grasp the sig­nif­i­cance of the exhibit’s title –“Cloud City”–until I was enjoy­ing the cool breeze and a bird’s eye view of Cen­tral Park, the Met, and peo­ple run­ning, walk­ing, bik­ing, and dri­ving on the streets below.

After exit­ing the struc­ture, I had a new appre­ci­a­tion for the com­plex­ity of the struc­tures that–for bet­ter or worse–guide our every­day lives. Whether you actu­ally climb the exhibit, or just cir­cle its perime­ter, this instal­la­tion offers ways to chal­lenge and expand per­cep­tions of city space. If all else fails, there’s always the view and the rooftop bar.

*Met admis­sion sug­gested rates: $25/adults, $17/seniors, $12/students (some NYC stu­dents may enjoy free admis­sion). But feel free to take the “sug­gested” part lit­er­ally. As a grad student/unpaid intern, I didn’t hes­i­tate to “sug­gest” my own price and paid a mere $5 for a full day’s admission.

Pho­tos: Megan McRobert