A Fall Saturday in New York

Big Bambu was closing on Sunday, and, determined to see it a second time, we arrived at the Museum at 8:30 to join the line for tickets when the doors opened at 9:30.  Saturday was cold but at least it was fall cold and not winter cold.  The line was friendly, and by ten we had our tickets for eleven-thirty.  Just time enough to warm up with tea before going out on the roof.
Big Bambu is a project of the Starn brothers, twins born in New Jersey and with a studio near Beacon, who wanted to create a sort of living work.  It would start, grow, change constantly and then be removed.  It would represent both chaos and design, spontaneity and structure.The structural elements, bamboo and mountain climbing ropes and knots, would be elements in the design.  It would also legally constitute a building rising forty feet above the top of the museum and having to meet the NYC building codes.  It is by far the most ambitious project the Met has done on its roof space which is annually turned over to a living sculptor to create a temporary exhibition. 

Groups are led on a walk inside the sculpture by docent.  We go up an uneven walkway with handrails to the "living room" where the crew installed their cup-holders, a cooler, and a wind-chime (not planned as part ot the structure).   Unplanned also were the wisteria vines climbing up from the roof and Pale Male, the famous hawk who came to roost while we were there.Then in smaller groups we went to the highest point gaze across the park to the reservoir and over at the "wave" more or less formed by the bamboo.  Waves are a frequent element in the Start brothers oeuvre.

It has some the delight of The Gates, Christos project of a few years ago, and like the Gates, it is now gone at least as an experience.  It will take them two months to actually remove the whole thing.  However, if you can get to Detroit, there is hope to have another project there.

After our climb on the bamboo, we hiked up to the Guggenheim for a lovely lunch at the restaurant (we needed to sit) and for Chaos and Classicism, the current show.  Focused on the period after WW I and before WWI and the art of France, Italy and Germany, it reflects the yearning for permanent values and peace after WW I especially in France which suffered most of the fighting.  Picasso is quoted as saying, "Art does not evolve by itself, the ideas of people change, and with them their mode of expression." It contains work of Leger, Matisse, Picasso, and Otto Dix among a great many others and became at the end of the period, the art of the Nazis who insisted on representational art..  The show is very worthwhile and very crowded.