A Familiar, Feathered Friend

Perched high up on the Met’s Cantor Roof Garden, set against the vast backdrop of a New York summer sky, I approach an enormous blue bird sitting on a yellow crescent moon. This is artist Alex Da Corte’s As Long As The Sun Lasts, the 2021 Roof Garden Commission for The Met. Moving closer to meet the bird’s gaze, I realize this is, in fact, our dear old friend Big Bird. This kind, singular creature from childhood instills a familiar comfort. Here, Big Bird roosts atop a red steel base which allows the piece to rotate gently in the breeze. Big Bird stands 8-feet, 6-inches tall and has 7,000 individually placed aluminum feathers—mostly blue—which create a magical softness against the roof garden’s hardscape. Drawing inspiration from Sesame Street creator Jim Henson, the sculptor Alexander Calder, writer Italo Calvino, and singer-songwriter Donna Summer, Da Corte’s floating bird conjures feelings of nostalgia, innocence, and curiosity. Big Bird’s pretty blue plumage and melancholy expression invoke a feeling of sadness, too, but a red ladder in its left hand suggests upw…