Four illuminated, pixelated aliens are bringing a playful new presence to the exterior of Cornell University's Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art in Ithaca.
Garden Invaders, by artists Iftikhar Dadi and Elizabeth Dadi, is installed on a wall overlooking the Morgan Japanese Garden on the museum's north side. The exhibition remains on view through spring 2027, according to Cornell.
The backlit sculptures draw on early computer games and Japanese kaiju imagery. The artists connect their biomorphic invaders to postwar cultural responses to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, including fascination with and fear of technological futures.
The installation also plays with its surroundings. The Japanese garden, created in 2011, offers a quiet setting beneath the museum's imposing concrete walls. The building, designed by I.M. Pei, opened in 1973.
Iftikhar Dadi is a Cornell art history professor. The artists' work juxtaposes popular imagery with that architectural and garden setting, presenting the figures as both humorous visitors and reminders of technology's unsettling possibilities.
The Ames Exhibition Endowment provided partial support for the exhibition. Cornell's announcement did not give an exact closing date beyond spring 2027.
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