Summer Art Garden: Creatures of Paradise

For the second annual Summer Art Garden on the museum’s plaza, Memphis-based duo Banana Plastik present an environment filled with vibrant and whimsical beings entitled Creatures of Paradise. Oversize bugs and tiny Thumbelinas relax in a fantasy landscape that is equally idyllic and surreal. An ambitious mural is complemented by vivid umbrella designs, surprises hidden in the planters, a botanical intervention on the ground, and more. The artists, Ivy-Jade Edwards and Paige Ellens, were inspired by the abundance of figures, fantastic beasts, and playful proportions of Hieronymous Bosch’s enigmatic painting The Garden of Earthly Delights (ca. 1490-1500, Museo del Prado, Madrid). Ellens and Edwards worked in tandem, passing the work back and forth to create this fever-dream environment filled with curious, feminine deities and fluttering, monstrous insects. Their aim was to create a warm and colorful daydream-like creation where the creatures revel in a safe and comforting community free of societal norms.