Photo: Beatriz da Costa with Donald Daedalus, The Life Garden, 2011, restaged in collaboration with Taylor Lindsey and Aleen Vartivarian for Beatriz da Costa: (un)disciplinary tactics, presented by Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles. Photo credit: ofstudio, Yubo Dong.
Gardening and Cooking Workshops
Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery
4800 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90029
Saturday, December 14, 2024 from 11 AM–3 PM
For the PST ART exhibition, Beatriz da Costa: (un)disciplinary tactics, LACE is staging workshops activating Beatriz da Costa’s The Cost of Life (2011–13) series, which grew out of the artist’s experience with cancer. The Cost of Life series illustrates the ethical, emotional, and economic costs needed to keep cancer patients alive, drawing attention to the interconnectedness between human, animal, and plant life.
In 2012, chef Michelle Fuerst and Beatriz da Costa presented a collaborative gardening and cooking workshop on the occasion of da Costa’s participation in Art, Environment, Action! (Sept. 28–Dec. 15, 2012) at the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center in Parsons The New School for Design. LACE’s activation is inspired by da Costa’s final public presentation and celebrates her life-long commitment to art, health, and social issues.
About the Workshops
The Life Garden: Gardening Workshop
Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery
4800 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90029
11 AM–12:30 PM
Part one of the workshop focuses on The Life Garden (2011), an indoor medicinal garden that grows herbs and plants known to help people living with cancer. Stewarded by Taylor “The Plant Plug” Lindsey during the run of the exhibition, the garden has over thirty different species such as mushrooms, herbs, and fruits. For this program, Lindsey will share their gardening expertise with the public as well as instructions on how to build your own indoor medicinal garden. Supported by botanist Aleen Vartivarian, workshop participants will also learn more about the health benefits of anti-cancer nutrition. This workshop will be held inside the gallery in front of The Life Garden from 11 AM to 12:30 PM.
The Delicious Apothecary: Cooking Workshop
LACE Executive Director’s home in Los Feliz
Address provided upon registration
1 PM–3 PM
Part two of the workshop revolves around The Delicious Apothecary (2012–13), a wooden medicine cabinet with spices known to have cancer-fighting properties, and The Anti-Cancer Cookbook (2024), which was completed for (un)disciplinary tactics. Led by chef Michelle Fuerst, this cooking workshop will utilize ingredients from The Life Garden and The Delicious Apothecary. Participants will be invited to collaboratively assemble nutritional recipes from The Anti-Cancer Cookbook, while learning more about Fuerst’s previous collaborations with da Costa. This workshop will be held offsite at the LACE Executive Director’s home following the gardening workshop from 1 PM to 3PM, and will conclude with a celebratory meal.
Capacity is limited for both workshops, and registration is required. Registered participants will be gifted a condensed version of da Costa’s ambitious artwork, The Anti-Cancer Survival Kit (2012–13), courtesy of the Beatriz da Costa Estate.
Download a PDF of The Anti-Cancer Cookbook
Photos by Angel Origgi.
About the Presenters
Lucia Fabio is an independent curator, researcher and artist whose interests include notions of domesticity, alternative spaces and histories, feminism, and the ritual of the everyday. She has run two alternative spaces and frequently organizes projects in non-traditional venues. Recently, she was part of the curatorial teams that organized The Feminist Art Program (1970-1975): Cycles of Collectivity at REDCAT and the first museum retrospective of Fluxus artist Alison Knowles, which is currently touring Europe. Her current research focuses on plants and their relationship to our past and future ancestral lineages, while exploring her Sicilian heritage.
Michelle Fuerst is a private chef in Princeton, New Jersey. Growing up in California, she studied culinary arts there. After cooking in various Bay Area restaurants, she ultimately landed at Zuni Café and Chez Panisse, both pioneers of the local and sustainable food movement. At Zuni Café, Fuerst climbed the ranks in the kitchen and learned the foundations of rustic Californian cooking. She further refined her skills as a serious cook at Chez Panisse. Her exploration in the culinary world has taught her where good ingredients come from, the integrity of a simple meal and the larger impact this awareness has on the world.
Taylor Lindsey, known as “The Plant Plug,” is a multifaceted artist, gardener, and sustainability advocate based in South Central Los Angeles. With a passion for nurturing both plants and people, Taylor combines her expertise in gardening with her background in personal training and sports recovery nutrition. As a gardener, she specializes in cultivating a wide variety of plants, promoting sustainability, and helping others reconnect with nature. In addition to her green thumb, Taylor is a versatile artist, working across multiple mediums to create thought-provoking pieces that explore themes of growth, healing, and resilience. Her knowledge of sports recovery and nutrition informs her holistic approach to wellness, encouraging a balanced lifestyle through proper self-care. Through her work in both the garden and at home, Taylor empowers others to grow, thrive, and cultivate a deeper connection with themselves and the world around them.
Aleen Vartivarian is a budding biologist with an educational background in botany and received her B.S. in Plant Sciences from UC Davis. With her experience in agriculture at their Student Farm, she moved on to assisting with honey bee research, curriculum building for Sterling College in Vermont, seed conservation and plant tissue culture at the Huntington Botanical Garden and finally has found herself a career as a consulting biologist. While Aleen continues to learn about the natural world around us, she is passionate about sharing that knowledge with those who wish to listen. She believes we are all parts of one organism working together towards a future of longevity and wellness.
