Tamara always starts her work with the human body, its senses and experiences. She is convinced that the human body carries both carnal experience as well as emotional heritage. In her work she explores human emotions and basic needs, whilst keeping in mind our natural bond with the natural world and need for a shelter.
The artist works extensively with natural landscapes, trying to bring them into the city environment. Hence materials used may be site-specific or selected to evoke and recreate a certain sensation. She works largely with wood, steel and silk, but also integrates plants and even her own hair. Tamara’s work is mainly three-dimensional, but includes photography and poetry. She believes that poetry is a great outlet of the soul and it helps to look deeply within. Tamara writes her own poetry and appreciates the works of Alejandra Pizarnik and Raúl Zurita.
Before turning to Fine Arts, she completed architectural studies. Though the artist found herself unhappy within the architectural field, there are clear traces of it in her art practice. A good representation of her personal journey is a series called “Body architecture” which showcases the process and struggles she accumulated in this quest as well as the questions she had posed. How do we build ourselves? What constructs us? Which constructions repress us? How do we navigate social canons; what society expects from a woman; all the standardised norms one must comply with in addition to the baggage of one’s family history.
Tamara searched for answers in nature. She used her art practice as an outlet to tell her story as well as to declare her artist manifesto. We are animals that come from the wilderness and we shouldn’t lose this bond with it. The artist continues to explore this question and is playing with an idea of a refuge. An intimate shelter that allows a person to think and connect with surroundings, earth, sky and oneself.
photos by PILOTENKUECHE International Art Program
When recounting her latest piece, she speaks of an inner sensation she felt when standing in front of a tree, that which cannot be described in words. Artists stresses: “You can feel it and not intellectually perceive it.” Her piece is a memory of an encounter with the landscape. When speaking of her artwork Tamara says: “It is a dream, it’s not a construct. As a dream it doesn’t have to be perfect!” Accordingly, her work has an airy quality to it, allowing space for free interpretation, encouraging the viewer to use their own imagination to awaken their senses.
Tamara says that she could easily spend a whole day in repose, simply visualising, thinking and examining a concept. When she has solved the puzzle in her head, she starts the execution. Tamara grew up as an only child and she spent a lot of time in her fantasy world, imagining things and playing on her own. Also, today her ideas are born in the same way; an artist desires to fuel the imagination of the viewer. This artist wishes to bring them closer to the nature, even if it is just in their own imagination.
photos supplied by artist
For more information and visual insight head over to Tamara’s website.
Lichtspiel des Westens
film: Entrepasos
Karl Heine
Saturday 7 December 2019
16.00 – 22.00
Overwhelmed incorporeal happiness / vernissage / PK RD41
Saturday, 14. December 2019
19:00 – 22:00
PILOTENKEUCHE, Franz-Flemming-Straße 9, 04179 Leipzig