a moss-covered chair in a dark forest

Natasha Lavdovsky

CAFKA.25 | Field Guide to the Understory

Natasha Lavdovsky

@virtual.tasha

website

Pattison Outdoor Billboard
Ainslie St N and Water St N
Cambridge

Moss Chair

The Moss Chair installation converts a reclaimed chair from a local dump (foam and fabric removed), into an organic substrate onto which moss from the surrounding forest was carefully transplanted. Initially installed in 2013, the Moss Chair has been tended to for over a decade–the moss is still alive and is home to baby spruce trees and huckleberry plants. The surrounding cedar tree roots have grown up into the chair from below, creating a lattice inside
the seat, beneath the moss. The Moss Chair was installed in a boat access only forest on the Northwest BC Coast (in an undisclosed location), and has the approval of the Indigenous Hereditary Chief of the Territory and members of the community. The artist returned years later for this photo, illuminating the site with a light bulb powered by a portable diesel generator–the same kind of energy that powers homes in nearby towns.

Natasha Lavdovsky is an interdisciplinary artist and amateur lichenologist whose work explores ways of integrating ecological activism into the artistic process. Natasha’s projects challenge the illusions of separateness that extract humans from our inherent embeddedness within the biosphere. Natasha holds a BA in Studio Art from Princeton University (where she also studied geosciences and environmental studies), and holds an MFA in Intermedia Studio Art from Concordia University, Montreal. Natasha calls southern Vancouver Island home and is grateful for her ongoing connections to the land in unceded Indigenous Territories of the W'SANEC, Lekwungen, Scia'new, T'Sou-ke, and Pacheedaht First Nations. Natasha is a recipient of numerous grants and awards, including the David Suzuki Foundation Rewilding Arts Prize, Canada Council for the Arts grant, and the BC Arts Council Early Career Development Program grant.