Workers adding pieces to “Big Bambú,” a continuing work-in-progress
I was looking forward to today’s press luncheon at the Metropolitan Museum with more than my usual breathless anticipation, because the pre-chicken reception was located on the Roof Garden, where Doug + Mike Starn‘s scaleable bamboo forest, Big Bambú, is installed (and will continue rising to more complex heights, until the end of the installation’s run, Apr. 27-Oct. 31).
I had skipped the press preview two weeks ago, because it took place on a wet day, which precluded climbing through that maze. But before heading out on this sunny morning for the Met’s press fest, I had absorbed the voluminous guidelines about who can and cannot ascend, weighed myself to determine that I had not yet exceeded the 400-pound limit (nothwithstanding my sumptuous Mothers Day feast), shod my flat feet in the requisite flat, rubber-soled shoes with a closed toe and a closed back or back strap,” and prepared to bring back to my art-lings a top-of-the-Met video, fit for a panda.
No such luck. (And not even any pandas.)
The press could look, but not climb, because no tour guides (required for the ascent) were in attendance. But wait a minute! Just when I’d given up, I encountered Tom Campbell.
“Will you be my guide?” I asked in jest, showing that I had donned sensible shoes for the occasion. Whereupon the Met’s director bared the bottom of his business oxford and dashed my last hope. I guess I’ll just have to return another time.
So here, from terra firma, is the best that I could do: