Icelandic artist Katrín Sigurdardóttir (born 1967) has created two new sculptural installations specifically for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She is known for her highly detailed renditions of places, both real and fictional, that often incorporate an element of surprise.
“Boiserie” (2010) by Katrín Sigurdardóttir. Courtesy of the artist. Photograph by Bruce Schwarz, the Photograph Studio. Copyright: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Entitled “Boiseries”, the installations are full-scale interpretations of 18th-century French rooms preserved at the Metropolitan Museum, one from the Hôtel de Crillon (1777-1780) on the Place de la Concorde, Paris, and the other from the Hôtel de Cabris (ca. 1774) at Grasse in Provence, a press release explains.
Visitors to the Lila Acheson Wallace Wing’s south mezzanine gallery will encounter one Boiserie as the exterior of an enclosed chamber.
Looking through surveillance mirrors, they will be able to see inside the room that Sigurdardóttir has created, complete with replica furniture based on the Hôtel de Crillon period room in the Museum’s Wrightsman Galleries.
In contrast, visitors to the north mezzanine gallery will be invited to walk among panels of the second Boiserie, based on the Hôtel de Cabris period room, where Sigurdardóttir has altered scale and proportion to create something akin to a folding screen rather than an enclosed space.
Katrín Sigurdardóttir at the Met is organized by Anne L. Strauss, Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. The exhibition runs until March 6, 2011.
