A new exhibit at the Johnson Museum, “Garden Invaders,” offers a playful homage to Japanese aesthetics, past and present, say the artists, Iftikhar Dadi, John H. Burris Professor of History of Art in the College of Arts and Sciences, and Elizabeth Dadi. The exhibition features four backlit sculptures shaped like digital, pixelated aliens. 

The original Johnson Museum building, designed by I. M. Pei in 1973, features concrete walls that partially enclose the Morgan Japanese Garden, created in 2011 on the museum’s north side. “The alien figures are installed on an exterior wall overlooking the garden space, whose serene atmosphere, evoking a traditional Japanese garden, is set against the imposing concrete architecture surrounding it,” the Dadis write in their exhibit description.

“Their elevated placement evokes a postapocalyptic alien descent into the garden, reminiscent of early computer games,” the Dadis write. “This aesthetic also recalls influential Japanese kaiju super-creatures and biomorphic invaders from the postwar era into the present. Partly developed as a response to Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the release of uncontrolled destructive forces, this visuality evokes both fascination and fear of a technologized but uncharted future.”

“Garden Invaders” was supported in part by the Johnson Museum’s Ames Exhibition Endowment and will remain on view through spring 2027.

Read the full story on the College of Arts and Sciences website.