Tatiana Da Silva Vaz
Tatiana Da Silva Vaz is a textile artist who was born in Lisbon and grew up in France. She approaches the medium with a background in fashion design to recreate elements of the body, drawing viewers’ attention to societal perceptions. She uses archival practices to document her own body and employs video at times to examine the oppressive nature of European constructions of the body, always with the intention to encourage her viewers to challenge normative expectations and to feel more comfortable in themselves.
Tatiana invited us to try out an element of her practice: freeform weaving with twine on a plaster cast of her own foot. This will go into her growing collection of shoes, a project she has been working on since 2022. She uses leather, wire, thread and twine to intuitively create unwearable shoes from the cast of her foot.
Artist’s Instagram
1 2 3
Tatiana invited us to try out an element of her practice: freeform weaving with twine on a plaster cast of her own foot. This will go into her growing collection of shoes, a project she has been working on since 2022. She uses leather, wire, thread and twine to intuitively create unwearable shoes from the cast of her foot.
Artist’s Instagram
Tatiana: I started in high school, so I did three years in design, not arts. And after that I did one year in fine art school, but I really wanted to do fashion design school. So after that I arrived at the school Les Arts Décoratifs and I did five years in fashion design, my masters in fashion design. During my graduation year, I felt like it's not what I love to do and I started to work more in sculpture and not really in fashion. So I really [changed] my creation in my last year of my masters degree. My teachers were really encouraging, really pushed me to go in this way, so it was really nice and really good to have support from them and my friends. After graduation, I joined a studio and I did my portfolio, residencies and all of this work. It's really great. I'm really happy. It's really random, my process, so it's cool.
Renée: We watched your video with Studio 5 and you were talking about that transition from fashion design into textiles and fine art, and that kind of stemmed from delving into research as part of your process. So what's the role of research in your practice now?
TD: I think when I was in fashion design, my subject was the body and the body’s space in social environments or media. I really study the social place of the body in a European way, it was the start of all my work. I think it's more powerful right now than when I was in fashion design.
MR: Like more powerful to communicate it or more of a powerful experience for you?
TD: Yeah, just to make the thing and let people see this. I think it's more emotional too, because it's more a part of me than just design. And people tell me they feel the process or the subjects. That's why it's more powerful than just to design for someone.
RF: Do you feel like fashion design was more making for someone else and this is making for yourself?
TD: In fashion, you have rules, so you cannot solely do what you want to do. I feel more free right now.
RF: That's a good feeling. That’s how it should be [everyone laughs]. You also talk about how your background in fashion kind of gave you the language of fashion to then be able to deconstruct and question how the fashion world thinks about the body. And so does the fashion world consider these questions? How do you hope to bridge your questions and what you're thinking about with the current practices to reframe and push the norms?
TD: Big question. I think it's not only the fashion world, but in the entire society. It was after a big trip in Brazil I started to process this question : seeing all this diversity in body types, living together and with no dominating norm. When I came back here, it was a cultural shock [laughs]. Oh my God, we're not living in our own body because we're always questioning our size. Especially in the Black community in France, you have to look good, always have good hair, have a good body, it was really stressful. It was just a shock when I came back here and I was like, oh my God, I don't want to continue in this industry, in this kind of society. I think it’s rooted really deeply in the culture, especially in Paris – everyone follows trends or follows body trends. In Paris I study the place of the body, and you have some people who live in their own body, but it's quite rare. When you ask people how they feel, why they have these clothes, people don’t know. It was really interesting to ask people how they feel in their body and why they feel bad. I just focus on the European continent because I live here and it's my culture, because when I was in South America, or in Cabo Verde in Africa, the consideration of the body [there] was so different, It was a completely different perspective, maybe a little less connected to what I’m trying to express.
MR: You had talked about that a little bit in the Studio 5 video and I was actually going to ask about your trip to Brazil and that experience of coming back and there being more of a beauty standard here. And so I was curious, how do you feel like your work has been received in the context of a place that has more of a standard or doesn't talk about the body in as open of a way? What are the conversations that you've been able to have with people about that?
TD: Oh, it's really interesting. A friend saw one exhibition I did and he's Brazilian and he was like, oh, it's really intriguing, here you think about it. He was a little bit impressed and at the same time he thought this is strange, quite strange, to analyze this, the [space of the body] in this place. But he told me that this was actually broader, because it's not only the place, but it's also the Black body space. In Brazil they have different standards of beauty, but also different standards between colors of bodies. So in this way, he was like, oh, this is really interesting. It's not like in Europe, but you also have questions about beauty [in Brazil].
RF: So you often use and reference your own body, right, in your work, like with your pattern pieces and casting?
TD: Yeah.
RF: Does that feel vulnerable and how does that feel to use your own self in so much work?
TD: At first, I didn't realize my work was gonna make me really vulnerable. It’s really intimate, it's my own space. I think it was one year later, when I did a talk about my work that people were telling me that they saw me doing a reconstruction of my body and I was like, oh my God. This is really strange. I didn't realize that it was really a part of me. Now I feel okay with that. But yeah, it was really strange. It was my own body, naked in front of so many strangers. I think right now I'm okay with that. I tell myself that it's a work, and I talk about a subject that many people can identify with and that's okay. I don’t often tell them it's my own body. I try to make them start reflecting on social norms. I feel more comfortable like this.
MR: Yeah. That's understandable.
RF: Yeah, it's more about just getting people to think about their own relationships with their bodies.
TD: Yeah, it's really interesting when people see that, and they’re questioning.
MR: Maybe before we ask more questions, can we try out the weaving?
TD: Yeah! So.. I started this yesterday.
MR: Is this the cast of your own foot?
TD: Yeah [laughs]. The process is weaving with the structure that’s here so just up and down.
MR: You have an ongoing, multi-year series of shoes, right?
TD: Yeah I can show you different ones... This one is only thread and metal. And this one leather and metal, so I have many ways to do shoes.
MR: And they're all from the [cast of your] foot?
TD: Yeah. When it's finished, I just take it off of the plaster, and it becomes a sculpture.
RF: When did you first start making them?
TD: I learned shoe making when I was in fashion. It’s really interesting with leather, you can do the structure and the structure lives on its own after. It’s a long series. I started this in 2023. I’m gonna show all the shoes in 2026.
RF: Do you ever wear them?
TD: Yeah. I have one that's more wearable.
[Tatiana pulls out a stack of shoes she’s kept in a big plastic bin]
TD: This one is the most wearable. You can wear this for a couple hours.
MR: The texture is so beautiful in them.
TD: Yeah, it's sanded and I don't know how to say, gravure, carved.
MR: Do you have an intention, an idea when you make them or it’s intuitive?
TD: No, it's really intuitive. It's quite seasonal, like I'm gonna do only shoes. It was a long time that I didn’t do this because it’s really with feeling, with emotion. And I love to work on different pieces at the same time, so the shoes, it's really the emotional part.
MR: Where are they all gonna be shown?
TD: At La Villette, it’s a big exhibition. It's not in a gallery, it's like a fair, it's the new generation of talents. It’s a collective show and it's a big, big event, so it's really cool.
RF: Congratulations.
TD: Thank you.
MR: So we also wanted to ask about your video work. You collaborate with the artist Noémie Ninot. What is your collaborative relationship with her and what is your process?
TD: It's a high school friend. During my graduation year she helped me to do video installations. She's an artist and photographer and she helped me with all of this because it's not my medium. I just told her that I had an idea of doing a performance with her. I started to draw some combs and [said] maybe we can [have] combs and video and maybe different people [doing] their hair. So I made a comb in heavy metal, so they [made sounds]. I was just like, I trust you. She did amazing work and it was such a great collaboration.
MR: I watched those videos with the combs. They're very beautiful. I was curious, was there an intention with the hard metal, using that material to make these combs?
TD: Yeah, first one I wanted to do in wood. But I don't know, maybe it was too realistic or too soft. So I did a test in metal and I was like, oh, yeah, it works more than wood. And yeah, [it makes] the sound. It was the first time I worked with metal. It was also interesting to explore this new medium.
MR: The sounds are beautiful. It’s big.
TD: It was really more aggressive too. So it was the perfect medium to do this video.
MR: So that was your first video project?
TD: Yeah. We did this video and we did 2 more after that. We wanted to collaborate after and I just feel grateful to do this.
MR: What was the process like to make those videos? How did you feel about making video art for the first time?
TD: I felt lost. She is like a really straight to-the-point worker and my way of working is really the opposite. But it was really great because when I did this comb, she was like, oh, this is genius. We can make sound. I felt like, okay cool, perfect! I also had two people in the video. I told the general directive, like only make sound with the comb and just detangle hair with this, and we chose five different hairstyles for the aesthetic of the video. She chose the direction for the video, and I chose the hairstyle and after that it was a very organic process.
MR: When you show that work, do you include a text with it?
TD: Yeah. I have a little text with the explanation, but people didn't read that, they understand with the video and the installation of the combs. So, yeah, it's a great collaboration. I'm really happy.
MR: You have another video too. Oya, is that how you pronounce it? I read in the description that it “traces the cycle of psychic and bodily mutation of a nomadic being.” I was curious, what does that mean to you?
TD: So this one was really to recreate skin in a medical way, to evoke an image of surgery. It was this process of sewing with thread, to reproduce a skin with another medium. The reconstruction of the human body with another medium.
MR: So the term, nomadic being, is that related to a being that's, like, moving through the world?
TD: Yeah, because in my work, I don't really define a specific region [for where] my body and all bodies around me [are from]. It was really just defying the [ideas of a] normal body.
MR: That's a beautiful thought.
RF: Can you talk a bit about your material and color choices? You use a lot of raw and natural materials.
TD: I quite often use leather and thread and a little bit of metal, and I just thought to use paper too. And because of my background of fashion design, it's the material that I feel really comfortable with. My color choice is only brown, natural, nude, because it's really relative to the skin. I want to stay in the natural image of colors of skin. So, yeah, it's really a obvious choice.
RF: Yeah, that makes sense.
MR: Leather is made from skin, so is there certain leather that you use? Or what does that feel like to be physically using skin?
TD: It can be quite weird for people to see so much leather because it's the skin of an animal. [My] friend who works in fashion design just gives me all the leather that’s gonna end in the trash. I try to pay attention to this leather and just care about the material. So yes, it's a skin.
RF: I feel like everyone has a complicated relationship with leather now. There's so much new leather, but there's so much old leather and used leather. So I'm glad that you're using scraps.
TD: Yeah, it’s quite difficult to pay attention, like this one is okay, and this one is, like, forbidden in Europe so you cannot use this.
RF: I also come from a fashion and textiles background. And I've always been very interested in the emotion and history of touch that I feel like clothing holds. Fabric and the clothes that you wear are absorbing your scents and your emotions. They're kind of living with you. And so while you're not necessarily making wearable clothing all the time, there's still something emotional and ghostly about your work, and it seems to speak about this history of touch and emotion within clothing. So can you talk about the role of past stories in your work and what you're trying to reveal?
TD: I'm not religious, but I'm really spiritual and I believe in energy. I just put a little bit of my energy into my stuff. It's a little part of me that I show in exhibitions and people can see this part of me. I just want to try to make people question their own body. I think I just try to interrogate by my work, and not put my soul in all of my pieces because I cannot, I can't. It's a little bit of me, but I try to release it. When my pieces are in the exhibition, it's my pieces, and it's a moment of my process, and yeah, I was emotional.
MR: In a recent Instagram post, you captioned that you were body archiving. So I was also curious about the role of archiving in your work? You also take Polaroids of your work and you exhibit that too. And so what does being an author of this archive mean to you? And what is the role of archiving to you?
TD: I try to really make space in my work about my own body. I feel like my body changed so I made measurements and scribed like, oh, this changed and this too. I made new pieces and archived this moment. It's my job so I just made it like a game, not just feeling bad that I [gained] 2 kilos. It's quite fun, oh my body changed and I’m going to scribe and research why my body changed in the top and not my back. I'm taking notes and archiving in this way. To me the most important [thing] is not to feel lost about my work and my body.
RF: I was also looking at your recent post of photos of your family from the 70s. How does your family's past influence your work and what do you take from their stories?
TD: I was born in Portugal, my mother is Portuguese and my father is from Cabo Verde. It's an island near Senegal. In my culture and in my family, the body was not a subject. It’s how I feel in Brazil. Like, you have your body, you dance. It was really a lot of cultural music, of dancing, just living in our own body and I never felt bad in my body when I was a kid or when I was living with my parents. It was after, when I arrived in high school and even in my adult life when I realized my friends or the collective group doesn't feel good in their body. So it was this environment questioning me about my body and oh, I'm not in the social norm, my size is not the normative one. It was really maybe in my twenties that I realized that and questioning body spaces. In my family the body and space and the culture of dance was really free.
MR: Yeah. This is kind of a different topic. We just referenced these two Instagram posts, but it's because we couldn't find a personal website for you that documents your work. And so we were curious, is there a reason that you don't have a website? Are you purposefully not wanting to put your work out on the internet as much as in person?
TD: Not really. Right now I'm making my website. It's not my medium, so I just asked friends to help me and we’re doing it right now. I think it's really important because I can explain and have a text with my work. I think Instagram is more the funny one. It's more like a mix of my personal life and professional life. I think a website is going to explain more about my process and my work.
MR: And then kind of in the same vein, mostly your work is exhibited as it is, but I know that you exhibit those polaroids that you take. And at the Sorbonne art galleries, your pieces were exhibited as photographic prints. I was curious, what is the difference to you of having your work as a physical sculptural thing versus a photographed image? Is that different for a viewer?
TD: Yeah, it's different because my first love is fabric. During this exhibition, the curator of the gallery wanted only photos. It was really challenging to just make my work in two dimensions, just a photo. I was like, I'm gonna do a medical scan of my work, just to see the texture and maybe people can feel the emotion of the fabric. I did nine photos of my pieces, many, many sculptures and it was like a big scan of my work in photography. It was quite strange, but it was an interesting job to do and people were interested. And they felt the material and the sensibility of my work. With the polaroids it’s different because I always take a photo with the polaroid when my stuff is done. It's like an archive of my work. So, yes, it's quite different.
MR: And then we have one last question to kind of wrap up with a bit. How has deconstructing your body through your pattern pieces, we didn't really talk about this, but the zoomed in tapestry of your skin, and tracing your hand and sewing it to recreate a skin, how has that changed your relationship to yourself and your own body, but also bodies in general, outside of your art practice, in your personal life?
TD: I think I know myself more. Now, I think I know myself, for sure. I know my body. It really changed my relationship with other bodies because when I explain my subject, people are like, oh, this is really deep or really intimate. I don't feel that it's so intimate because bodies take up a big place in our society. I think it's a job for life. I try to decolonize our relationship with the body and the place all bodies can take in society, because I think it's a really oppressive thing that not all bodies [receive] the same space.
MR: Yeah, I love that, what you're saying about decolonizing our ideas of the body, having one standard. I really admire what you’re doing. Is there anything else that you wanted to talk about? Anything that you feel like you aren't usually asked in interviews that you feel like is important to you?
TD: My work is intuitive, but it’s also to tell people to live and do what they want to do and what they want to become. To me it's the most important, just to feel good in our space and create our safe place with work and with our body. I think it's more emotional too, because it's more a part of me than just design.
- Combs (photo courtesy of the artist)
- Shoe (photo courtesy Valentina Luraghi)
- Our collaboration
- Border artwork Hottentot (photos courtesy of artist)
- Noémie Ninot [friend, director collaborator, artist]