Jennie C. Jones often explores sound in her work to engage and rethink minimalism and modernism. Influenced by Black avant-garde music, she uses sound and listening as key parts of her creative process. Jones’s Ensemble, this year’s Metropolitan Museum of Art Roof Garden Commission, reflects these ideas through three geometric sculptures that interact with natural elements to produce sounds that blend seamlessly with the cacophony of New York City noise. The smooth surfaces of the sculptures are made of aluminum and coated in a deep maroon. The shapes are contemporary interpretations of string instruments featured in The Met’s collection—a trapezoidal zither; a tall Aeolian harp; and a doubled, leaning one-string. The forms are angular, each with edges painted in bright red and are located alongside concrete blocks made to resemble travertine found in The Met’s Great Hall. Ensemble consists of three sculptures, each contemporary interpretations of string instruments featured in The Met’s collection. (Hyla Skopitz/The Metropolitan Museum of Art) The sculpture modeled after a zither, a flat string instrument primarily used to play folk music, resembles Jones’s 2013 work, Bass Traps with False Tones. It is a trapezoid with strings on its back, while its face and hollow center are pointed diagonally toward the sky. Jones’s interpretation of an Aeolian harp is based on These (Mournful) Shores (2020), an outdoor sculpture conceived by Jones for the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The large rectangular structure was faced with strings that play music without the need of a physical musician, instead moving with wind. The sculpture portraying a one-string draws on the instrument played by blues musicians in the South. Jones specifically took inspiration from Moses Williams and Louis Dotson who crafted their instruments from meager means. The musicians played their instruments upright against a wall or tree, so Jones’s piece comprises two oblong shapes with one string, each leaning on a soundbar. The sculptures in Ensemble have the potential to make sound, depending on the wind. (Hyla Skopitz/The Metropolitan Museum of Art) All of the works in Ensemble were engineered and designed specifically with the potential to produce noise. Depending on the wind, the pieces sound along with the tumult of the city. Otherwise, the sculptures sit silently on the rooftop, much like their historic precedents on view in the galleries. The Met has commissioned 12 rooftop installations since 2013. Ensemble is to be the last until the opening of The Met’s modern and contemporary art wing in 2030. Ensemble by Jennie C. Jones is on view at The Met through October 19.