Source: CCTV.com

05-12-2009 09:31

A 130-foot long art installation is the centerpiece of the annual roof top garden exhibit at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The conceptual artist, Roxy Paine, says the tumultuous world events of the last eight years moved him to create his latest work.

"Maelstrom" by Roxy Paine, poised in the center of the city, is witness to the chaos that conjured its theme.

A 130-foot long art installation is the centerpiece of the annual roof top garden exhibit at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Here, at the top of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is where part of the Met's annual roof top garden exhibit is installed.

Conceptual artist Roxy Paine said, "I've had this image in my head of the maelstrom of this force of this kind of malevolent force that just seems to take over, that is beyond our control that we as humans are kind of small in the midst of and dwarfed by."

The piece voices another concept familiar in Paine's work - of nature and technology intermingling with the results creating a chaotic effect.

Valves fixing the piece to the Met's walls give the impression of the organic and inorganic in a symbiotic relationship.

Roxy Paine said, "I wanted a real shift in your perspective on the piece. You have one perception as you approach the piece initially you see this has been downed but then you come over here and you see the valves and it shifts the direction also. Is the piece emanating from these valves? It presents that question."

That relationship Paine plays out with the 130 foot long exhibit is a glaringly false mock up of nature, set against both the orderly green of Central Park and the browns, blacks and greys of the apartments that surround it. One of the strongest themes of Maelstrom is: which is the real organism? Are any of them real?

It is the largest work the museum has ever hosted for its annual rooftop show. It is on display until late October.

Editor:Zhao Yanchen