Tamara Kostianovsky: Phantom Limbs

Phantom Limbs presents a new body of free-standing textile sculptures by Tamara Kostianovsky that merge human forms with landscape, unfolding into a surreal, dystopian jungle. This site-specific installation positions the body as both a product and extension of the earth — a living outgrowth of the planet — and as a vertical conduit linking the terrestrial and the celestial.

Kostianovsky’s sculptures expose internal systems — biological, geological, and ecological — through densely layered textile structures that expand outward from a central core. Inspired by the underground communication networks of trees, through which nutrients, water, and distress signals are exchanged, an immersive web of textile “roots” extends throughout the space. These forms both anchor and suspend the sculptures, shaping the viewer’s movement through the installation while disrupting conventional spatial perception and evoking the profound interconnectedness of living systems.

Informed by contemporary ecological thought that dissolves the boundary between body and environment, Kostianovsky draws on her distinctive vocabulary of flesh and vegetation to construct an atemporal landscape — one that oscillates between a lost paradise and a speculative future. Within this shifting terrain, vines morph into flesh, bones bloom into flowers, and cacti radiate chromatic intensity. By cutting open surfaces to reveal hidden interiors, Phantom Limbs invites viewers to consider a central question: what is revealed when we look beneath the skin of living systems?