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Otobong Nkanga has changed the way we understand the Earth and our place in it. “Humans are only a small, minute part of the ecosystem,” the artist has said. “My works connect us to our shared histories, not just through land and geography, but through emotions shaped by events and encounters. These are the cadences of life.” Otobong Nkanga: Cadence presents a new commission by the artist: an all-encompassing environment of tapestry, sculpture, sound, and text that explores the turbulent rhythms of nature and society. Created specifically for MoMA’s Marron Family Atrium, the installation centers on a monumental, multi-paneled tapestry that suggests sprawling ecosystems and galaxies.
Suspended along the highest wall of the Atrium, the large-scale tapestry features a kaleidoscopic range of custom metallic, natural, and synthetic fibers created by the artist using innovative digital weaving techniques at the TextielLab in Tilburg, the Netherlands. Sculptures composed of dyed ropes, interwoven with hand-blown glass and ceramic forms, hang floor-to-ceiling alongside ceramic tablets imprinted with the artist’s poems. These diverse elements are brought together within an immersive sound work based on the voice and breathwork of the artist. Cadence confronts both the beauty and the degradation and upheaval of the natural world amid industrial and technological revolutions, resource extraction, and war. The monumental installation creates new ways of perceiving—and feeling—the massive shifts taking place in our time.
