LISLE, Ill. (Oct. 23, 2024)— Massive, whimsical sculptures representing animals important to Illinois ecosystems will be on view among the trees at The Morton Arboretum when its next art exhibition opens on May 17, 2025.
The new Vivid Creatures: An encounter with colorful forest friends exhibition is being created for the Arboretum by Portland, Oregon artists Fez and Heather BeGaetz, continuing the Arboretum’s popular outdoor art program with five multicolored, larger-than-life sculptures. The pieces making their national public garden debut will include a white-tailed deer, dragonfly, sandhill crane, fox squirrel and brittle button snail ranging from 8 feet to 24 feet tall.
“The roles that animals, plants and people play in supporting balanced ecosystems will be depicted in each piece,” said Amy Scott, the Arboretum’s head of exhibitions. “While the sculptures will be fun and interactive, they will also help the Arboretum educate people about how they contribute to healthy habitats in Illinois.”
For Vivid Creatures, the artists focused on animals that either migrate through or are part of the Illinois region, selecting one of their subjects after a personal interaction. “Heather was having a conversation with one of the Arboretum’s tree scientists and our daughter Calliope and I met a squirrel,” Fez said. “That’s why the squirrel made it into the line-up.”
Vivid Creatures is the largest exhibition to date for the duo, who are partners in life and art. They have created large-scale sculptures and environments exhibited internationally at numerous immersive art destinations, art and music festivals, conferences and urban spaces.
“Our works are invitations to take sanctuary in wonder, and to be gathering places for people to enter worlds of imagination,” Heather said. “This series is about relationships. The pieces help people arrive in place and alter people’s way of interacting with that place, and then hopefully also with each other.”
Four of the pieces will be along paved, accessible paths within a short walking distance from the central Visitor Center area. The fifth, the brittle button snail, will be on a hill overlooking Interstate 88, a short walk from two of the Arboretum’s East Side parking areas. Previous sculptures have been placed throughout the Arboretum’s 1,700 acres to encourage visitors to explore beyond the entrance area.
“An important goal for this exhibition is to make it as physically accessible as possible in an outdoor setting,” Scott said. “Four of the sculptures will be along paved, ADA-compliant paths near the Visitor Center.” The fifth sculpture, a rainbow-colored brittle button snail, will sit atop a berm visible along Interstate 88, where a piece from the Arboretum’s previous Troll Hunt exhibition (2018-2021) was a popular attraction.
With more than a decade as an Antarctica expedition guide, Fez’s creative intelligence is deeply shaped by the artful forces of ice, wind and the sea. Heather’s creative roots are in the performing arts as a theatrical writer, director, performer and mask maker, which inform her large-scale sculptures and immersive art environments. “I see life itself as a complex artful interaction,” she said, adding, “We make large-scale sculptures to provoke a sense of creative possibility and participation.”
Northern Trust is the presenting sponsor of Vivid Creatures. The new exhibition will be included free with general admission to The Morton Arboretum. The Arboretum’s current art exhibition, Of the Earth, closes in March 2025. Information about the Arboretum’s art exhibitions and the artists is available on the mortonarb.org website.