Spin Through Outer Space on the Roof of the Met

A new installation from the sculptor Alicja Kwade, inspired by time and space and solar systems, suspends big polished spheres atop the museum.
Art installation on the roof of the Met.
Photograph by Daniel Shea for The New Yorker

The Polish-German sculptor Alicja Kwade makes art out of stone and steel, but her real materials are time and space. One past project was inspired by wormholes, and “ParaPivot,” her new installation, on the roof of the Met (through Oct. 27), suggests parallel solar systems. As you walk amid the big polished spheres, some of which are suspended overhead, don’t think about gravity—think of the fact that, while you’re at the museum, you’re also on a sphere spinning through space.