Hidden in Plain Sight and Brought to Light: Natalia Khorover’s Transformative Waste Practice and Upcoming Salvage Art Summit

By: Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein 

Natalya Khorover’s quilted urban landscapes offer hidden surprises and lessons about waste and climate change. For over two decades, she has seamlessly integrated and transformed plastic and other discarded materials into her work so that it becomes nearly unrecognizable. This upcoming September 24th to 27th, she has organized a Salvage Art Summit that will host 20+ art-activists gathering together about a common passion for creative resilience and sustainability. We hope to see you there! It is free to sign up at this link: https://www.salvageartsummit.com

Natalya, It is very exciting to hear that you are running a Salvage Art Summit later this month (Sept 24 to 27)! Would you tell our members what they can look forward to when participating? 

The Salvage Summit (Sept 24–27) is a free virtual gathering for artivists (artists who are also activists). Participants can expect workshops, thought-provoking sessions, and presentations from 20+ leaders on transforming waste into art, championing sustainability, and fueling creative resilience. The event includes live sessions, a Telegram community for discussions, and a Co-Create Day with interactive activities. Free registration grants 24-hour access to daily presentations, with an option to upgrade to the Reclaim Pass for lifetime access and exclusive content.



What a unique opportunity to hear from 20+ leaders on sustainability art-ivism! Which includes yourself, having worked with salvaged materials for many years. How does combining single use plastics through sewing allow you to reflect on the climate crisis and sustainability? 

It’s my way of taking what would end up choking our planet and giving it new life. And here’s the thing: it makes people stop and look at what they’d usually ignore, and that’s how I get them thinking about sustainability and the climate crisis. In many ways, it’s a meditative process which is also good for my sanity. Sewing single-use plastics together, by hand or with my industrial machine, is how I transform trash into something beautiful and unrecognizable.

(Screenshot from www.artbynatalya.com)

Transforming trash into something beautiful and unrecognizable as a form of artivism and meditation in your depictions of urban landscapes must be a powerful experience. Why is it important to your message and process that they become beautiful and unrecognizable?

I make the plastics blend right into my urban landscapes because trash is already everywhere — we just don’t always see it. We’re blind to it. By making it part of the scene, I force people to notice what’s normally invisible. And that’s the whole point: once you see it, you can’t unsee it, and maybe it’ll push you to do something about the climate crisis.

Thank you so much, Natalya. We are looking forward to seeing you on September 24th and really digging into how art can create change! 

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