If you’re looking for an art experience that takes you beyond the ordinary and into the cosmos, check out Josiah McElheny’s monumental installation Island Universe (2008).  With its five colossal, chandelier-like sculptures that seem to float in space,  Island Universe is visually dazzling, and it may look familiar to some New Yorkers.

Inspired by the iconic chandeliers at New York’s Metropolitan Opera (designed by Austrian firm J & L Lobmeyr), McElheny’s shimmering forms transform glass, chrome-plated aluminum, and electric light into a poetic dialogue between art and science. But there’s much more here than visually dazzling aesthetics.

Created in collaboration with astrophysicist David Weinberg, Island Universe is McElheny’s artistic exploration of the multiverse — the idea that our universe might be just one of many. Each of the five sculptures represents a different possible universe, their spheres standing in for clusters of galaxies and their glittering lights evoking the powerful glow of quasars, the brightest objects in the cosmos.

The layout of each structure follows precise scientific measurements that map the history of time, with each rod signifying the doubling of time’s passage. The artist himself calls these works “drawings of time.”

This installation invites deep contemplation; as you move around and beneath the sculptures, you’re encouraged to slow down, to let your mind wander through vast cosmic possibilities, and to reflect on humanity’s place within (or beyond) the universe. It’s no accident that the artwork feels both futuristic and ancient, with its themes tracing back to early cosmologies from ancient Greece, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and 18th-century astronomy.

Island Universe stands as a shining example of how art and science can collide to create something that’s not just seen but felt.

Photographed at the LA County Museum of Art (LACMA)