Bubblegum pink in colour, the sculpture, inspired by the artist’s own multicultural upbringing, depicts two tongues intertwining into one dancing figure. Through Mother Tongue, Solar Abboud explores the process of translation and assimilation that she experiences within her family context. With an Egyptian mother and a Spanish father, she has grown up in the constant intermingling between these two cultures.
Having recently become a mother Solar Abboud has found further inspiration in the psychological and physical displacement entailed within the experience of motherhood, and in what it means to host another body.
In 2024, Solar Abboud’s sculpture was featured in our Hayward Gallery exhibition When Forms Come Alive: Sixty Years of Restless Sculpture. Mother Tongue is her first public artwork to be shown in London.
Mother Tongue is generously supported by the Hayward Gallery Commissioning Committee, Travesía Cuatro and Byredo.
Learn more on the Southbank Centre website.
