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The Climbing Artists
Equal parts experimental architecture, sustainable sculpture, jungle gym, and live performance, Big Bambu—Mike and Doug Starns’ massive installation on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York—takes a decidedly outdoor approach to creating art.
Produced in collaboration with a group of climbers from New Paltz, NY (home of The Gunks, the Northeast’s trad-climbing shangri-la), Big Bambu is a work in progress, rising pole by pole as the climbers lash them together with nylon rope. It’s watching this progress that offers a good part of the work’s appeal: on a recent visit, when the structure stood over 30 feet tall, they sat perched in the latticework, with Central Park and the New York City skyline spread out behind them, like workers building a mid-century skyscraper.
The finished piece, as the Starn’s envision it, will take the form of a cresting wave; in progress, it looks like the bones of a kind of bamboo Bilbao Guggenheim. And while it’s no longer green in color—a month and a half of sun has bleached the shoots to a weathered tan—it’s renewable nature stands as a refreshing monument to the flexibility of sustainable materials.
For a closer look, a series of ramps and walkways allow (ticketed) visitors to climb up into the structure, which when completed is expected to measure 100 feet long, 50 feet wide and fifty feet high. Of the scale of the project, Doug says, “The reason we had to make it so big is to make all of us feel small—or at least to awaken us to the fact that individually we are not so big. Once we’re aware of our true stature we can feel a part of something much more vast than we could ever have dreamed of before.”
3 Responses to “The Climbing Artists”
Hey, nice pix of Big Bambu using the Hipstamatic iPhone app . . . love those filters and grungey-fun edges! Big Bambu visit tip: Show up at the Museum at 3:30 p.m. and queue up for a limited number of first-come-first-serve tickets for a small-group guided tour that gives you the opportunity to climb up on the bamboo ramps into Big Bambu. Pretty cool and fun . . . like nothing else in NYC, that’s for sure. Bring rubber-soled shoes – no stilettos, leather bottomed shoes allowed.
Hi Jan,
Yeah, Hipstamatic is my go-to photo app for my phone—and it doesn’t get the security guards angry like a DSLR does. I didn’t get to go up in the structure myself but watching the climbers build it did make me want to get up in there! Thanks for the end of the day tip; the lines can get pretty long at other times I hear.
I went to the Big Bambu over the weekend. Simply amazing. The views were incredible. It was howling wind and while the structure made some creaking noises, it was solid all the way to the top. I especially liked the built-in chairs, the cup-holders and the beer cooler. I hope the crew stays late to enjoy a beer while looking at the Manhattan skyline, I know I would.
A guide from the Met said the artists are going to create a massive living structure in Beijing or Canada next. This was the highlight of my trip to NYC, thanks for posting it Alex.
Josie
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