House proud: Cornelia Parker places a 1920s-inspired house on The Met’s rooftop

With spring suddenly in full bloom in New York, it seems timely for The Met to be making the most out of their rooftop space with a site-specific installation by the British artist Cornelia Parker.

When initially confronted with the space, Parker was taken aback by the daunting skyline and decided to create something architecturally incongruous, arriving on the concept of a large, red barn. ‘But then I realised – quite quickly – that red barns are way too big to put on the roof,’ Parker says.

Scouring the work of Edward Hopper, Parker became enamored with the painting House by the Railroad (1925), and upon further research, discovered that Alfred Hitchcock had based the home in Psycho on that same painting. So, the artist set her sights on creating an exact replica of that house.

The final piece is constructed from salvaged wood taken from an antique red barn, a fitting tribute to both her initial concept, and to Hopper himself. Titled Transitional Object (PsychoBarn), it is the fourth in a series of commissions that the museum has created specifically for the outdoor space.

The installation also spawned the creation of an exclusive scarf produced in partnership with weR2, which depicts the barn as it was being dismantled.