"HUMANS AFTER ALL"

TAGAS SAGAT

9 MAY - 6TH JUNE 2020

 

Digital Inauguration 9th May

Open for public after 18th May

 

 

For ss20 we've invited Tagas Sagat, an illustrator with a keen fashion sense, to get inspired by this season selection, and express it through his art.

"Humans After All" illustrates human-like beings in casual life situations, where the only reality is in what the characters wear.
Color saturated, surreal humanoids express themselves through the ss20 collection.

On the digital inauguration, we will share online the seven fashion illustrations and a t-shirt designed by Tagas for Wrong Weather. The seven prints will be for sale at Wrong Weather's website in an exclusive series of ten copies each.

Due to the COVID-19 preventive measures, the exhibition will only be open for the public after May 18th.

 

 

 

 

AN INTERVIEW

WITH TAGAS

 

Tell us a little about yourself.

Well, this one is always a little tricky. We always end up showing what we think people want to read or what we want to project. So here's a mix of both: I'm Tiago, I love games and music, food and fashion. An enthusiast, I love going deep into my subjects of interest. Avid reader of sci-fi and fantasy and overall stuff that's out of the ordinary. I finished my Illustration and Comics studies back in 2009 and worked in the scene for a little while doing some exhibitions and odd jobs. Got myself published a couple of times but not enough to keep me going. We (Portugal) were in the middle of a huge crisis back then and I wasn't strong enough to keep working as an artist and have a decent life. Got myself a part time job to make ends meet, a couple of years later a full time and as time went on just kind of had to let go of that part of myself. I felt really sad about it. It was time to move on and think about "real life", that's what I believed at the time. It was ok for a while and I had some amazing experiences. But that feeling of not living up to my own expectations kept growing and eventually led me to quit my day job and try to go all out as a creative. I've been really scared of the future, but at least I'm really happy with what I do now. I always feel self conscious about exposing myself but I hope you don't mind the rant, I'm working on being more open about my feelings and personal experience.

When did the passion for illustration start?

Really young, I was fortunate enough to have a lot of comic books around me growing up (it's actually "banda desenhada", technically they're different). My dad was a collector and enthusiast and I was fascinated by it from a young age. Growing up and being one of those kids that loved to read, my imagination was fed with an array of authors and scenarios and that made creating worlds and characters somewhat easy for me. But I think it was Magic: The Gathering that really stoked the fire of illustration in me though. Each little card with a whimsical image and a story behind it, left just enough space to make you wonder, and the ability to produce a still image with such life and power captured me forever.

How did you come up with the name Tagas?

I didn't, hahahahaha. Someone did it for me! Around 6th grade I had a friend that kept calling me by these variations of my first name (Tiago) and eventually came to Tagas. It stuck. Suddenly everyone was calling me Tagas and sure enough I also went along with it, it was cooler than just having a pretty common name. Tiago was very popular where I lived back then so having a special nickname just for me made me really happy.

How your relationship with fashion started?

Like I said in the beginning, I had to find a part time job after I left the course, and so I did, it was at a shop in Bairro Alto. Turns out they sold accessories back then. I was already into dressing up since I was super into music and really tried to express myself as much as I could through my look. So it felt natural and deepened my interest in fashion, I started reading more about it and following some brands and designers in a way I hadn't before. Led me to a career in fashion for about 10 years! Who would've guessed? Hahahaha

What is the idea behind "Humans After All" series for Wrong Weather?

Hmmm, I felt like I wanted to show something sweet and outlandish at the same time. It's somewhat of a commentary about our time and age, fashion has been bridging a lot of gaps, from ethnicity to body types and ages and I think we're getting closer to a point were it feels like it really is for everybody. So even though my characters have something less human about them, I wanted to express their togetherness and show that after all they might be as human as everyone of us. The outlandish factor being the one that connects them all, a visible thread.

How was it working with Teresa Sousa as a stylist?

A lot of fun, we're in a relationship too, as some of you might know. So it felt really good, and also made me realize that I need to be better at taking input from someone else. It can be tricky having the person you love commenting on your work, I've been really insecure coming back to illustration so I'm very touchy about it at the moment. Thankfully she's really patient and gives me feedback that ends up being what I need to listen at the moment. Plus, her stylist work is amazing so I feel blessed for working with her, always felt like she was in line with what worked best for both our tastes and the image itself.

What's next?

Oufff, that's a big one. I want to put out as much work as possible and keep myself at this steady pace, just striving to get better every single day. Ideally working for myself, I will be opening commission work sometime soon, which I think is really in line with what I want to do now. A project I've been writing and developing for a while now, I'm creating a world of my own and I'll be sharing more of that soon. Eventually some comics, I feel like I owe that medium a lot, and would love to work on projects related to it.

 

On a final note:

I'm actually trying to catch up for all this time that I wasn't actively working on my craft so I just need sort out a way to do it all as best I can. I think being human is a constant struggle to be better to everyone around us and ourselves too. We creative people sometimes are even more aware of that since our work ends up being up for scrutiny all the time, first by ourselves and then by everyone else. We're confronted with our misgivings all the time since the work is nothing more than a piece of us.

This is a tough time for everyone, we're all going through some shit. This pandemic has brought a lot of interesting and pressing subjects to the table. Let's just hope we can reinvent ourselves, the way we do things and keep taking care of the world around us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE WRONG WEATHER GALLERY
AV. DA BOAVISTA 754
PORTO