Roof Garden Commission: Jennie C. Jones, Ensemble

Gifts for art lovers.

By Lauren Rosati and Glenn Ligon

Multimedia artist Jennie C. Jones draws on the aesthetics of minimalism and the improvisational qualities of avant-garde music to consider the sonic potential of abstraction. This volume, the latest in The Met's Roof Garden Commission series, documents Jones's dynamic installation. It features a trio of sculptural forms based on stringed instruments—a zither, a one-string, and an Aeolian harp— joined by a floor-based work that serves as the "conductor" of this ensemble. Full of sonic possibility, the sculptures sit quietly until they are played by the movement of the wind. An essay situates Ensemble within the artist's larger practice and an interview with Jones conducted by Glenn Ligon charts the development of the commission, connects her site-responsive work to the collection and architecture of The Met, and explores the artist’s unique engagement with sound and visual abstraction.

Lauren Rosati is an Associate Curator in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art and Research Projects Manager in the Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Glenn Ligon is a painter and conceptual artist living and working in New York. Previous Roof Garden Commission volumes feature the work of Imran Qureshi, Dan Graham, Pierre Huyghe, Cornelia Parker, Adrián Villar Rojas, Huma Bhabha, Alicja Kwade, Héctor Zamora, Alex Da Corte, Lauren Halsey, and Petrit Halilaj.