Have you heard of the tampon artist? That’s how Joana Vasconcelos was known at the beginning of her career. Born in 1971 in Paris, to Portuguese parents living in exile, Joana returned with her family to Portugal in 1974, after the Carnation Revolution. Following study in Lisbon, she took a job as head of security at one of the city’s nightclubs. And then, out of over 14,000 tampons, she made a huge chandelier for the nightclub. She called it The Bride. When curators from the Venice Biennale saw The Bride, they added it to the 2005 Biennale. Seven years later, in 2012, Vasconcelos became the first woman and youngest artist to display her work at the Palace of Versailles; her solo show would be the most viewed exhibition in France in 50 years. Her success has not ceased. Vasconcelos began a collaboration with the French design company Roche Bobois in 2020, and her “BomBom Tutti Frutti” rug is one of the brand’s all-time best-sellers. To celebrate its 50th anniversary in America, Roche Bobois has suspended the artist’s Amazonia—a 150-foot, glitter-covered, twisting fabric sculpture—from the ceiling of its New York showroom. —Jeanne Malle