The Museum of Modern Art presents Otobong Nkanga: Cadence, a new, site-specific commission by the Nigerian-Belgian artist Otobong Nkanga (b. 1974) opening in the Donald and Catherine Marron family Atrium. The large-scale installation, which is on view through June 2025, features an all-encompassing environment of sculpture, sound, and text that addresses the rhythms of both ecological life cycles and social upheaval. Central to the commission is a monumental tapestry that is suspended along the highest wall of the Atrium. Hanging sculptures composed of dyed ropes, interwoven with hand-blown glass and ceramic forms, are suspended floor-to-ceiling within the space and featured alongside ceramic tablets imprinted with poems written by the artist, and an immersive sound work created by the artist. The unique, large-scale tapestry features a kaleidoscopic range of natural and synthetic fibers created by the artist with innovative digital weaving techniques at the TextielLab in Tilburg, the Netherlands. A series of veiled images invoking water, shooting stars, bombs in the sky, and plant forms are interwoven throughout the many layers of the tapestry, exploring states of censorship and visibility, and social and ecological turmoil. The space is filled with an ethereal sound work based on the voice and breathwork of the artist, in which cascading sounds drop from high to low pitch and multiply, producing a polyphony of tones and words and creating a kind of sonic sculpture. These cadences are accompanied by the artist’s poetic texts inscribed in clay sculptures, as well as a live performance taking place in spring 2025.

www.moma.org