Hear the Wind Play These Stunning Stringed Sculptures in the Met’s New Rooftop Art Installation
Created by artist Jennie C. Jones, the new exhibition features a trio of towering musical instruments made from concrete and aluminum
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Three large abstract sculptures have recently arrived at the rooftop garden of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art for visitors to see—and hear.
The red Minimalist sculptures feature sets of strings. But unlike traditional string instruments, they aren’t meant to be played by people. The sounds they produce depend on the wind’s force and direction.
“A big part of the project is about anticipation and silence, activation and happenstance,” Jennie C. Jones, the artist behind the piece, tells the New York Times’ Siddhartha Mitter. “All these variables that are out of our hands.”
Titled Ensemble, the sculptures are made from concrete and aluminum. They’re inspired by three instruments: a zither, a diddley bow and an Aeolian harp. According to a statement from the museum, they sit quietly, “full of sonic potential.”
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“While these works are mostly silent, their potential for sound and the tension they hold between dormancy and activation, anticipation and release is where they hold their power,” says Lauren Rosati, the Met’s associate curator of modern and contemporary art, per Time Out’s Rossilynne Skena Culgan.
The sculpture based on a zither—an instrument with strings stretched across a flat box—is a slanted trapezoid with strings running down its back. The piece resembling an Aeolian harp is a tall rectangle, and its strings should make faint sounds as the wind blows through them. The piece modeled after a one-string diddley bow is an homage to Mississippi blues musicians like Louis Dotson and Moses Williams.
“My origin story of Minimalism includes the ingenuity of these folks,” Jones tells the Times. “It comes from a place of depth and utility and the moment when you can take something from the floor and put it on the side of your house and people will gather and sing with you.”
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She adds that while planning Ensemble, she wanted to find “a way of holding space with simplicity, a way of having Minimalism in form be emotive rather than cold.”
Jones also drew on some of her previous works. The zither sculpture is based on Bass Traps With False Tones, a refurbished bass absorber she created in 2013. She unveiled These (Mournful) Shores, another large and boxy piece based on the Aeolian harp, in 2020.
Ensemble is also informed by its location: the roof of a famous museum. As Jones tells the Times, the Met’s rooftop is “a complicated space, because it’s not visually or physically tied to a piece of architecture so much as it’s resting upon 5,000 years of art.”
Jones incorporated concrete blocks resembling travertine into her sculptures, which mimic the travertine in the Met’s Great Hall. She also visited the museum’s collection of musical instruments while planning the exhibition.
The show is the 12th contemporary art installation to be displayed in the Met’s rooftop garden.
“We are thrilled that Jennie C. Jones has brought her unique artistic vision to the Met’s iconic roof garden,” says Max Hollein, the Met’s CEO, in the statement. “Elevated high above the sounds and rhythms of New York City, her innovative installation seamlessly combines form, color, line and acoustics, challenging visitors to engage with sculpture in new and unexpected ways.”
Ensemble is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City through October 19, 2025.
