We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tamara Kostianovsky a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Tamara thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

My entire career es based on risk-taking for choosing a subject that is controversial and often can be seen as violent and abject. I create sculptures and installations that depict or evoke severed trees and animal carcasses. These works were originally inspired by imagery I saw growing up in Argentina during the Military Junta, where the ubiquitous presence of carcasses in the markets of Buenos Aires became, in my mind, a surrogate for the State-sponsored violence dominant during that era. By focusing my work on the concept of the wound, I try to connect personal and cultural trauma with the continuous and overwhelming violence onto the Earth’s landscape.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am an artist whose work explores themes of consumer culture, violence and ecology. I grew up in Argentina and came to the US to study art in my 20s, and stayed in the East Coast making Brooklyn my home.
Using discarded textiles from clothing, furniture, and linens I developed a body of work which evokes carcasses of cattle, birds and trees. Most recently, I have been using the carcasses as sites for regeneration and rebirth, with vignettes of lush vegetation and exotic birds sprouting out of images of carnage.
I follow in a tradition of artists such as Rembrandt, Goya, Soutine, Adriana Varejao, and many others from the Latin American Baroque, who have explored not just the concept of flesh as the most radical and existential way of being in this world, but who have questioned how visual depictions of torn flesh can serve as conduits to explore the political, emotional, historical, and philosophical underpinnings of life.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I learnt early on about the importance of community in the art world and how the history of art is made of friendships among artists. My artists friends provide encouragement, inspiration, contacts, and resources. There is no such thing as making art in a vacuum. To me, the work needs to be a reflection of its time and that is something that one can only achieve by participating actively and socially in this world.
In New York, making friends and connecting with people can be challenging: the distances are long, people are overworked, and usually tired. A smaller city can be a great place to start up a community of creatives..

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I worked for over a decade on my own without success or interest from the art world, which meant being an adult without any type of social validation. To me, my source for strength and confidence always came from the inside, only in that way I was able to keep connected to my creativity regardless of the response from the outside world. I always felt a type of calling, I never doubted my commitment to making work and my path as an artist.
I believe that art is not a choice, it is something that chooses you.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.tamarakostianovsky.com
• Instagram: @tamara_kostianovsky
• Facebook: Tamara Kostianovsky

Image Credits
Theo Pitout for RX&SLAG, Paris – New York Roni Mocan Cody Ard for Ogden Contemporary Arts