Atop the roof garden of the famous New York City museum sits the 2016 seasonal installation by British artist Cornelia Parker called "Transitional Object (PsychoBarn)," which replicates Norman Bates' home in the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock thriller "Psycho."
In a video interview on the museum's website, Parker said that she originally wanted to do something with a red barn for the project and then came across Edward Hopper's 1925 painting "House by the Railroad."
"Reading about it, I realized that Hitchcock based his "Psycho" house on this painting, and I really loved that," she said. That's when she decided to make a house out of the red barn.
Working with a restoration company that went around America taking down old barns, Parker designed the installation which features a roof and two sides. Scaffolding in the back holds everything up, although thanks to the strategic spot on the corner of the roof, viewers won't be able to see that. In fact, that's also how the movie set was built - just two sides propped up by a stage set and filmed from a particular angle.
"I wanted it to be believable from this angle so the roof garden becomes the garden of this house," she added. "I quite like the idea of the barn being quite a wholesome thing... politicians like standing in front of red barns because it typifies wholesomeness. And then the 'Psycho' house is the opposite... all the dark psychological stuff you don't really want to look at."