Precious Okoyomon has transformed the courtyard at MoMA PS1 in New York with a living garden that combines plants, sculpture, and sound.
Titled Among the Flowers I Learned to Love: A Garden of Decreation, the installation is the largest outdoor work yet by the New York-based artist. It also launches the museum’s experimental Courtyard Commissions series.
The project will remain in the MoMA PS1 courtyard for two years. Meanwhile, visitors can experience the installation free of charge.
Okoyomon is known for immersive gardens and surreal stuffed-animal sculptures. Here, the artist has created a landscape of approximately 1,500 perennials and other plants in collaboration with Rhode Island nursery issima.
Precious Okoyomon creates a garden shaped by change
The planting deliberately brings together contrasting species. Native and invasive plants grow alongside one another, while pollinators and butterflies move through the garden.
As a result, the installation challenges conventional ideas about which forms of life can coexist. It also considers how urban environments adapt as ecological conditions continue to shift.
Okoyomon’s concept draws on philosopher Simone Weil’s idea of “decreation”, understood here as a continual process of making and unmaking.
Therefore, the garden is designed to remain in flux. Plants develop, seasons alter the landscape, and the installation changes with its surroundings.
Through this evolving environment, Okoyomon explores adaptation, resilience, and the uncertain future of urban nature in a changing climate.
‘The Pleasure Principle’ turns sculpture into a playground
At the center of the garden is The Pleasure Principle, a 25-foot-long sculptural work that invites visitors to physically enter the piece.
The structure takes the form of a giant teddy bear. Visitors can climb inside before traveling down a blood-red slide and exiting through the sculpture’s mouth.
During the experience, visitors can hear Okoyomon reading their poetry. The combination of physical play, sound, and sculpture gives the work an unusually participatory character.
The teddy bear is a recurring figure in Okoyomon’s practice. Here, the playful form also explores ideas of pleasure and the boundary between inner and outer worlds.
Consequently, The Pleasure Principle reinforces the broader logic of the garden. The installation encourages visitors not simply to observe a work of art, but to move through it and experience its changing environment.
A living artwork at MoMA PS1
Among the Flowers I Learned to Love: A Garden of Decreation treats the museum courtyard as an evolving ecosystem rather than a static exhibition space.
The work brings together contemporary art, horticulture, and environmental thinking. At the same time, its combination of native and invasive species reflects the complexity of urban ecosystems.
As the garden changes over the next two years, its appearance and atmosphere will shift with the seasons. That ongoing transformation is central to Okoyomon’s approach.
Among the Flowers I Learned to Love: A Garden of Decreation (2026) is now on view for free at MoMA PS1, 22-25 Jackson Avenue, Queens, New York.