Tamara Kostianovsky opens “Grafted Gardens,” her first solo show at Slag Gallery
by Meryl Phair
Multicolored layers of cloth take the twisting forms of intricately woven tree stumps, butchered meat, and the feathered headdress of birds in Tamara Kostianovsky’s first solo show at Slag Gallery, "Grafted Gardens." The sculptures on display are made of discarded fabrics, many from the artist’s own closet. By infusing used textiles with new life, Kostianovsky threads a powerful message about the creative force of regeneration.
The Argentinean-American’s textile artwork explores violence, memory, and ecological destruction. “The ‘garden’ in this exhibition presents textile grafted assemblages that shed light on how, as said brilliantly by Alhena Katsof and by David Stannard, colonization was an operation of planting and dis-planting that entailed the uprooting of plants, people, and animals,” said Kostianovsky. “A multi-species project of displacement was possibly the largest act of genocide in the history of the world.” Her work on display in the Chelsea gallery includes pieces created in the past year and at an artist residency at Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, New York.
Born in Jerusalem, Israel, Kostianovsky grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the National School of Fine in Buenos Aires and her Master of Fine Arts from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. She has exhibited her work around the world and earned distinguished awards from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (2010), the New York Foundation for the Arts (2009), and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation (2012, 2008), among others. Kostianovsky currently lives in New York and is presented by Slag Gallery.
In Grafted Gardens, a series of "tapestries" support cloth replicas of native American birds that pop out of two-dimensional backgrounds. The birds are symbolic of the robust Central and South American avian ecosystems which have fostered myths, deities, and feather works over the centuries. The backgrounds, inspired by wallpaper designs from the European Colonial
Decorative Arts, represent a tropical paradise primed for exploitation. By bringing together elements from the natural life of the Americas alongside European influences, the pieces explore a complex interplay between colonizers and the colonized.
In Grafted Gardens, a series of "tapestries" support cloth replicas of native American birds that pop out of two-dimensional backgrounds. The birds are symbolic of the robust Central and South American avian ecosystems which have fostered myths, deities, and feather works over the centuries. The backgrounds, inspired by wallpaper designs from the European Colonial
Decorative Arts, represent a tropical paradise primed for exploitation. By bringing together elements from the natural life of the Americas alongside European influences, the pieces explore a complex interplay between colonizers and the colonized.
From the gallery’s ceiling hangs Colonial Carcass, a sculpture of butchered meat that rotates in a slow circle. The red muscles of cloth are interwoven with flowered patterns and colorful birds. Memories of meat from the artist’s home in Argentina combined with contemplations about systems of consumption in the United States, lead the artist to propose a beauty in the systems that devour industrialization.
The artist’s fascination with the subcutaneous world of ligaments, muscles, and bones started while she worked for a time in a surgeon’s office. The visceral imagery she experienced became a source of inspiration for integrating the physical body into her work. “By contrasting visceral imagery with soft materials, I seek to reintegrate the physicality of our bodies and the natural processes of birth, growth, and decay back into our existential understanding of life,” said Kostianovsky.
The installation also includes a group of three-dimensional tree stump sculptures. The material for a selection of these works such as Lengthwise and Uprooted was created in honor of the artist’s late father. The corduroy pants and shirts he wore for most of his life have been repurposed into branches, bark, and wood. The pieces bear a striking resemblance to the veins and arteries of the human body, drawing out the connection between the human body’s inner workings and the flesh of the natural world.
Grafted Gardens will be on display at Slag Gallery on 522 West 19th Street from September 9 through October 15, 2022. For more information about the exhibit look online at www.slaggallery.com or on the artist’s website at tamarakostianovsky.com.
