Family
In New York, the Argentine sculptor opens the doors to her home.
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At
Tamara Kostianovsky: Inside the Artist’s Strange and Haunting Bestiary
They spill off tables, climb walls, or hang suspended from the ceiling, forming a mass of muted colours. The flesh of Argentine artist Tamara Kostianovsky is crafted from reclaimed textiles, yet appears hauntingly alive. These silent carcasses and woven tree trunks speak of a violent world, a fusion of Latin America and the United States, the colonial experience of one, the consumer cycles of the other, all woven into a reflection on these distinct cultures. These "second skins," as the artist calls them, offer multiple layers of meaning: butchered animal bodies, the violence inflicted on the female body, tributes to the era of the disappeared, and the critique of contemporary fast fashion. This haunting menagerie of horror and poetry invades the permanent collection of the Musée de la Chasse in Paris until 3 November. The Socialite Family met the sculptor in her New York home, offering an intimate glimpse into her peculiar universe.
Location
New York
Author
Elsa Cau
Photos and videos
Constance Gennari
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TSF
Qui êtes-vous, Tamara ?
Tamara
A passionate artist, an immigrant, a mother, a sorciere who extracts meaning and expression from everyday materials. A woman attuned with the insides of the body. A lover of natural processes.
TSF
You are currently exhibiting at the Musée de la Chasse in Paris. You are also represented by Franco-American gallery RX&SLAG. How did you conceive this exhibition?
Tamara
At the exhibition at the Musée de la Chasse, my first institutional show in Europe, one can find a natural synergy between my work and the museum’s permanent collection, which is centered on paintings and sculptures related to hunting and nature. At the exhibition in Paris, we see two views contraposed, a negotiation between a traditional way of thinking about nature, and the proposition of a radical paradigm shift: that Earth’s destruction and degradation entail at the same time the possibility of rebirth, advancing an ecological manifesto within a high visibility space.I created a large sculpture of a dead tree specifically for this venue, shown in their temporary exhibition gallery, while the rest of my works, mostly representing dead animals, are exhibited in dialogue with the museum’s collection throughout the entire museum.
TSF
Have you received any awards or encouragement in recent years that marked a turning point in your recognition?
Tamara
I am fortunate to have counted on the support of many organizations over the last two decades. I am equally grateful to all of them, as each enabled different bodies of work to be made. I am particularly proud of receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship, which gave me a boost of self-confidence early in my career, allowing me to keep chasing a troubling image, one which dealt with representations of carnage and death. Most artists work without any validation from the world, one keeps running on an internal desire, a feeling, a sensibility that guides your moves. When a prestigious foundation offers support, one feels a type of recognition, not just from a career or financial perspective, but more so in the reassurance that this strange thing that you do can resonate vigorously with others.
TSF
Could you describe your work to us?
Tamara
I make naturalistic sculptures and installation using discarded clothing, mostly of dead trees, exotic birds, and animal carcasses. To me, these works speak about violence, consumer culture, and the environment. The material choice is very important, as I see fabric as type of “second skin”. I grew up in Argentina and my father practiced cosmetic surgery in Buenos Aires in the 1980s. As a Fine Arts student, I interned at his office, where I discovered the richest of the visual worlds—right underneath the skin. The colors and textures I saw in his operating room had a direct impact on my studies. The red in my painting class wasn’t just red: it was the color of blood. I arrived to the world of textiles through surgery and this lens continues to influence my work. To this day, my work is assembled with surgical suturing techniques, where fabric is a surrogate for skin and carcasses and trees are stand-ins for the body.
TSF
Do you consider yourself a sculptor?
Tamara
Yes, I do. It may not seem so at an initial look because of the use of textiles, but my work is traditional sculpture in the round, and I work within the language of visual arts and three-dimensionality. Sculpting is a skill I constantly work at. The process of working requires that I continue to develop the technique, refine forms, make volumes more pronounced, exaggerate curves. My formal training helps with “artists’ problems” such as composition, form, color, etc. But mostly, I learnt through Art History about the legacy of previous artists who have explored the topic of flesh in their works. Amongst many others, Rembrandt, Chardin, Soutine, Hermann Nitsch and Andriana Varejao, come to mind.
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As a fine arts student, I did an internship at my father's plastic surgery practice, where I discovered one of the most visually rich worlds—the one that lies just beneath the skin.
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Is there a reflection on recycling and waste—whether of meat (the carcasses on display at the Musée de la Chasse in Paris are reminiscent of Rembrandt's still lifes or those from the 19th century) or textile in today's world?
Tamara
I am an immigrant in the United States, where I have been living for the past 25 years. My work synthesis two distinct cultural traditions: It integrates the violent history of my native Latin America to contemporary US-based predatory cycles of consumption and disposal of goods, thus interweaving a carnal imagery derived from Catholicism and the Colonial experience with the future of waste in capitalist economies. My work is profoundly influenced by imagery of slaughtered cattle I saw during my upbringing in Argentina, where meat is a source of collective pride. I create analogies between the butchered body of the animal and violence towards the female body in naturalistic sculptures of dead cattle for which I cannibalize my own wardrobe. The works feature severed bodies that critique the Era of the “disappeared” a time in the 1970s when intellectuals, students, and others were kidnapped by the Military Junta. As I continued working with discarded clothing, I was appalled by the overwhelming scourge of textile waste, the “Fast Fashion” movement, and new tendencies in the industry that banalize these difficulties with strategies such as “Eco-Branding” and “Green-Washing”. By staging waste, my works imagine a future for the landscape where the remnants of our material culture are transformed into bodies and become environments. I give visibility to materials that are proof of the economic exchanges between consumers and producers, that are imprinted with the histories of workers, labor unions, immigrants who patiently interwoven them; materials that are the fruits of an ancient textile tradition threading crafts and technologies; materials that are made of natural and synthetic fibers, the materials of men intertwined with the materials of the Earth.
How long have you lived in New York? What atmosphere did you want to create here?
Tamara
I have been in Brooklyn, New York for over 20 years. I have moved countless times, but the apartment where I currently live is the only one in which I had an opportunity to design the space to match my taste and lifestyle. I worked on the design with an architect, @eugenia_kralj, who understood my vision, and with a skilled contractor who made it a reality. It’s a small NY apartment, where no space is wasted. The apartment stresses an appreciation for the artisanal, evidenced in the use of textiles and tiles. It’s also colorful and full of plants, as I wanted to conjure the natural colors and lushness of central America in the ambience. My art studio is at a different location, it’s more raw, spacious, and industrial, with high ceilings and big doors to accommodate the production and passage of large sculptural works.
Why aren’t there any of your works at your place?
Tamara
After a long day at work immersed in my artwork, I prefer to come home to a type of neutral space where I can take a breath and clear out my mind for a few hours, so I can reset it.
What does a typical day in your life look like?
Tamara
My cat wakes me up sharply at 7 am! I leave the house to go to my studio by 8:30 am. I usually work until 5 PM. The day in the studio goes by fast and it’s busy. It involves designing, troubleshooting, building a section of whichever sculpture I we are working on, answering emails, and being on the phone with my galleries. Usually, we are under pressure to meet a deadline. I work with assistants who are designers and artists. The work with them feels collaborative and organic, we feed each other with energy and try to keep the spirits upbeat. I drive home, make dinner for myself and my son Theo, a teenager, an athlete, and a foodie, who appreciates a good abundant meal. I am in bed by 9:30 pm, exhausted.
What is your relationship with France, as an artist?
Tamara
Argentineans are obsessed with French culture, and I grew up looking at it with a sense of awe, as for centuries France represented a model to emulate. French was a mandatory language in the high school I attended and the architecture of Buenos Aires is reminiscent of Parisian architecture. Artistically, I have a kinship with the palette of Fragonard, and of course with the paintings of Soutine and Modigliani. One could say that the desire to conjure French culture was always in the air when I was growing up, it was aspirational. Recently, had an opportunity to spend time in France and I now believe the idealization of French culture abroad has little to do with the reality on the ground. France is culturally richer, more diverse, more complex, and nuanced than the idealized image. The grandeur, the originality, the creativity, and the humanist values persist. I am now more amazed at French culture than I ever was.
What are your current news ?
Tamara
La Chair du Monde at the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Paris, continues until November 3, 2024. I will have a solo presentation at the Rockefeller Center, NY through October 2025. I am most excited about presenting my work at The Royal Academy, London, UK in a group exhibition which will open in June of 2025.
Could you share your favorite spots in your New York neighborhood?
Tamara
The Brooklyn Botanical Garden is my favorite spot, walking distance from my home. I got my inspiration for the large sculpture of a dead tree I made for the exhibition at the Musee de la Chasse during one of my recurrent visits to the gardens. In the past, I lived in a Brooklyn neighborhood called Greenpoint, which continues to be a favorite, especially because its access to the open views of the river. The presence of water washes out the sometimes-oppressive nature of the city. The Brooklyn Museum is also recommended, with a current exhibition of 200 Brooklyn artists that celebrates the museum’s 200th anniversary. I am very happy to have a sculpture included in that show.
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