Brooklyn-based artist Anya Boz is renowned for her series of art dolls titled Room Guardians. These are small mythical beings that take the form of recognizable animals. In her hands, deer, owls and wolves now have uncanny human features, including ambidextrous hands and expressive faces. When she is done with a piece, Boz photographs the creatures in the wild, allowing viewers to connect them with various folktales from around the world—one where woodlands have anthropomorphic forest guardians residing in them.
However, the series’ title Room Guardians alludes to the fact that today, these guardians are more likely to sit in rooms inside human homes instead of residing in forests. This occurs both symbolically and literally. Literally, because collectors who purchase the art dolls will most likely display them in the rooms of their houses. Symbolically, because this alludes to today’s condition where human homes are increasingly made at the expense of natural habitats.
Today, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) lists habitat loss as the greatest threat to the world’s species biodiversity. As a result, around half of the world’s original forests have disappeared, and they continue to be removed 10x more than the rate of their regrowth. Most of these habitats are being cleared out for agriculture, human housing, infrastructure and energy facilities. Hence, pushing wildlife to increasingly live closer to, or even within urban spaces. This is a condition that Boz highlights by showing how today’s circumstances are so dire that even the forest guardians of old have to live in human homes. This is why Room Guardians by Anya Boz are relevant to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of Life on Land.
Anya Boz’s Room Guardians are haunting reminders of habitat loss, illustrating how even mythical forest protectors are now confined to human homes. By blending folklore with modern realities, the series highlights the consequences of deforestation and urban expansion, echoing the urgent need for conservation. As wildlife is increasingly displaced by human development, Room Guardians urges people to preserve the natural world before it becomes a relic of the past.
Find out more about Room Guardians by Anya Boz and her other pieces on her website www.anyabozartist.com or Instagram @anyaboz