T E P L A

metal becomes textile

Sandra Tepla is a visual artist based in Prague, Czechia, whose practice examines individual responsibility for the condition of shared public space through the lens of littering, single-use materials, and broader systems of value and consumption.Working primarily with post-consumer aluminium, she transforms discarded objects into fabric-like, malleable structures that take form as wearable works or stand-alone pieces. Assembled by hand using metalsmithing processes carried over from an earlier jewellery practice, they occupy the space between object, surface, and environment.Her work is driven by a fascination with the overlooked and the discarded - objects so commonplace they have ceased to be seen, yet so prevalent they define the landscape of everyday life. By recontextualising these materials, she confronts the realities of a throwaway culture and invites reflection on the role of the individual within it.

wearables

The wearable works bring the practice into direct contact with the body. To wear one of these pieces is not simply to carry it, but to feel, physically, the argument it makes.

The Weight of Responsibility I [2026]

The Weight of Responsibility I explores what it means to bear responsibility for the state of the world we share - materially, bodily, and collectively.The dress is assembled from aluminium and steel, forming a structure that weighs only a few kilograms. Worn, it feels considerably heavier - a discrepancy that is not incidental but essential. The body registers what the scale cannot: the accumulated weight of responsibility, of complicity, and of the small decisions that collectively become a way of living in the world.In form, the dress carries echoes of medieval armour, but where armour was made to deflect, this structure presses inward. It is less a shield than a reckoning: something worn not for protection, but for accountability.The tabs were gathered from public space and supplemented through donations from friends and family, drawing others into both the making of the work and the conversations it generates about value, waste, and what it means to care for what we hold in common.The piece is also a confession of sorts. Tepla has been vegan for over twenty years; her practice is an extension of a life oriented towards reducing harm. Yet she is not exempt from the guilt she gives form to here - the particular discomfort of existing on a planet your species is destroying, of knowing, and still falling short. The Weight of Responsibility I does not resolve that tension. It wears it.Aluminium, steel
H: 76 cm W: 40 cm D: 2 cm

structures

The structures extend the practice into space. Unbound from the body, they are free to expand - larger in scale, more open in form, and more dependent on the conditions of the spaces they inhabit.Constructed from aluminium, they transform discarded material into fabric-like forms that shift between object, surface, and environment. Their appearance changes with their installation, responding to light, movement, and the architecture around them.

THE WORK BEGINS WITH A QUESTION.

every piece is an invitation to ask it too.

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