A Peculiar Garden
The artist, Saul Becker, created an apocalyptic, yet hauntingly beautiful landscape of glass, crystal, and metal that draws attention to ways humans have altered the habitats around us.
Saul Becker is one of the artists who have created installations in a habitat diorama hall at NHM as part of the exhibition, Reframing Dioramas: The Art of Preserving Wilderness, opening on September 15, 2024.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of NHM’s diorama halls, the exhibition explores the complicated history and unique artistry of the habitat diorama and is presented in a newly restored diorama hall that has been closed to the public for decades. Becker's work, A Peculiar Garden, is a reference to the energy that goes into organizing our environment, both thoughtfully and absent-mindedly.
The diorama presents a strange crystalline mise-en-scene, inviting visitors to appreciate its eerie beauty and the artificiality of nature in frozen stasis, symbolizing a possible future. Elements include taxidermy specimens drinking from polluted waters, an upturned and burnt tree trunk, electroplated plants (both native and invasive to Los Angeles), a graffiti-covered boulder, and amethyst specimens.
Saul Becker lives and works in Burien, Washington. In addition to numerous solo exhibitions with Horton Gallery in Chelsea, New York, his work has been featured at Artists Space, the Horticultural Society of New York, and Socrates Sculpture Park, among others. Most recently his work has been exhibited in New York as a part of the “Awe of the Arctic” exhibition at the New York public library. He received an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, and a BFA from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD); Halifax, Nova Scotia. The artist is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the Virginia Museum of Fine Art Fellowship, the Washington State Artist Trust Fellowship and a NYFA Fellowship.
He has been artist in residence at Bemis Center on Contemporary Art, Steep Rock Arts, The Arctic Circle 2010 Expedition, Gros Morne Artist Residency and the Shandaken Residency in the Catskills, NY. His work has been discussed in national publications such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, NY Arts Magazine, and The Seattle Times.
In addition to his studio practice, Saul is a co-founder and partner in Seattle based Mutuus Studio, an inter-disciplinary architecture studio which re-imagines the structure of a typical architecture studio as a hybrid between a design firm and an artist atelier. At Mutuus Saul oversees large scale public art projects including most notably the permanent installation of the “Acid Ball” project at Waypoint Park in Bellingham, Washington. With a background as a shipwright, Saul also leads the design and fabrication of custom lighting, furniture and objects that are integrated into the buildings they design. Becker would like to acknowledge his architecture studio team at Mutuus Studio, which was instrumental in the planning and visualization of this project.
