John Cederquist – Conservation Chair

Vee Hua 華婷婷1 min readJune 26, 2008Add comment

Easiest my favorite piece from the deYoung Museum is John Cederquist‘s Conservation Chair, created in 1998. This thing was absolutely mind-blowing, and it was definitely interesting to hear an intelligent 8 year old girl (who was later reprimanded by her mother for asking what a “rave” was) give her analysis about the great perspective used in the chair.


Made from Baltic birch plywood, Sitka spruce, maple, epoxy resin, oil-based inks, and aniline dye. (Some of the material list is incomplete — apologies on that.)

This chair made such a great impression on me that I had to see more of Cederquist’s work, and I am NOT disappointed. My mind is completely and utterly blown by this man’s skills in using unique shapes and careful pigmentation to create a sense of movement on otherwise flat surfaces. AMAZING. (Those pipes in the photo above are NOT round, my friends. They are flat pieces of wood painted to look round.)

Visit his website at johncederquist.com to see more of his mind-blowing work. We didn’t get permission to post the images, or we would. But. GO. It will not disappoint.

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Vee Hua 華婷婷

Vee Hua 華婷婷 (they/them) is a writer, filmmaker, and organizer with semi-nomadic tendencies. Much of their work unifies their metaphysical interests with their belief that art can positively transform the self and society. They are the Editor-in-Chief of REDEFINE, Interim Managing Editor of South Seattle Emerald, and Co-Chair of the Seattle Arts Commission. They also previously served as the Executive Director of the interdisciplinary community hub, Northwest Film Forum, where they played a key role in making the space more welcoming and accessible for diverse audiences.

Vee has two narrative short films. Searching Skies (2017) touches on Syrian refugee resettlement in the United States; with it, they helped co-organize The Seventh Art Stand, a national film and civil rights discussion series against Islamophobia. Reckless Spirits (2022) is a metaphysical, multi-lingual POC buddy comedy for a bleak new era, in anticipation of a feature-length project.

Vee is passionate about cultural space, the environment, and finding ways to covertly and overtly disrupt oppressive structures. They also regularly share observational human stories through their storytelling newsletter, RAMBLIN’ WITH VEE!, and are pursuing a Master’s in Tribal Resource and Environmental Stewardship under the Native American Studies Department at the University of Minnesota.

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seu
seu
15 years ago

I love John’s work. He has a new show coming out this fall in New York, I think? He also has a nice chair at the Cantor Art Center, Stanford University, right now. I saw it in April and I think that the show is still up. I’ll be looking forward to seeing some new work from him.

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ergonomic chair guru
ergonomic chair guru
15 years ago

Wow Cederquist’s work is really interesting, I had to look twice at the waterfall chair I swore it was a painting at first not actually made out of wood. I can’t stop staring at it, it’s like I stepped into an illustration or something?

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