Mother Tongues brings together work by 25 artists from across Africa and the diaspora in a shared exploration of sense-making across time and place.

The term ‘mother tongue’ refers not only to the first language of acquisition, but the first with regard to its importance and the speaker's ability to master its linguistic and communicative aspects. One’s mother tongue is not only how a person positions themselves to the world, but how they position themselves in the world. Like the body, it is a border – a place of contact and confluence, an intersection of negotiations.

With this inaugural exhibition, Southern Guild hopes to open a new chapter of exchange. The show occupies multiple contact zones, moving between visible surfaces and interior states. Taking a multi-generational and transnational lens, it charts the way in which language and pedagogy is channelled into diverse forms of expression. Though the nature of this enquiry requires a singular focus, its sights must be multiple.

Hours:
Tues to Sat, 10AM - 6PM
Sunday, Mondays & Federal Holidays, Closed