Aerial Reflection Garden
2025
Aerial Reflection Garden
Chris Natrop, 2025
40 Thorndike, Cambridge, MA
Floating above the communal interior of 40 Thorndike, Aerial Reflection Garden is a site-specific installation composed of many intricately cut, mirrored stainless steel forms suspended in space. Drawing inspiration from botanical systems, dream fragments, and abstract gesture, these sculptural elements hover delicately in the air, capturing and refracting both natural light and ambient shadow.
The work creates a canopy of reflection and movement, constantly shifting with the viewer’s position and the day’s changing light. Each form is laser-cut with intuitive precision, translating hand-drawn lines into mirrored silhouettes that ripple across surfaces and ceilings. The surrounding architecture becomes part of the composition, as reflections blend plant life, people, and interior structure into the artwork itself.
Anchoring the installation is a monumental LED video wall that expands the visual language of the suspended sculpture into immersive digital space. Looped animations—composed by the artist—echo the motifs of the physical forms above, layering color, texture, and rhythm into a dynamic ecosystem of light.
Together, the analog and digital elements form an ever-evolving spatial garden—one that invites quiet reflection, visual play, and a sense of uplift amid the daily rhythms of life inside this public interior.