British-Brazilian visual artist and designer, Tessa Silva, has an interest in the impact of materials on society and what they can reveal anthropologically.

Tessa Silva is a British-Brazilian visual artist and designer, with an interest in the impact of materials on society and what they can reveal anthropologically.

Her focal body of work, titled ‘Feminised Protein’, is a study into the use of milk proteins as a material for the handcrafted production of fine objects. Tessa’s research and exploration prompts the inspection of our material culture retrospectively and prospectively, using craft as a tool to explore the relationship between humans and animals; particularly the female mammals' role in a patriarchal social and cultural structure. The aim of her work is to re-assign value to a discarded and disregarded material; milk, ‘the elixir of life’. Tessa creates unique objects, both functional and sculptural, reforming ancient techniques to produce contemporary artefacts. 

The Feminised Protein project has been exhibited at institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, and Madrid’s cultural centre at Palacio de Cibeles.