Xu Bing: Monkeys Grasping for the Moon December 18, 2009

This suspended sculpture, designed specifically for the Sackler Gallery, was created by expatriate Chinese artist Xu Bing. Comprised of 21 laminated wood pieces which each form the word "monkey" in one of a dozen different languages, the linked vertebrates flow from the sky-lit atrium through the gallery's stairwell down to the third-level reflecting pool.