Teresa Solar lives and works in Madrid, Spain. Solar works across sculpture, video, drawing and photography.
2021 Biennial Year Find out more
Solar’s exhibitions usually function as complete ecosystems of thought, creating complex worlds that either draw from literary works of fiction, mythology, Natural History or more terrestrial narratives that are close to her personal history. Her practice has been focused around verbal and sensorial language capacity, including the process of translation and the construction of meaning through words and bodily enactments. In this sense, Solar approaches her sculptures and installations as corporeal functions that relate to the industrial world, where hybrid forms of existence are constantly produced; her objects, then, constitute a crossbreed between the manmade, the natural and the mythical. Recent exhibitions include Index Foundation, Stockholm (2019); Galería Travesía Cuatro Ciudad de México, México (2019); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2018); and Der Tank, Basel (2018).
Liverpool Biennial 2021
'Osteoclast (I do not know how I came to be on board this ship, this navel of my ark)'
Teresa Solar presented a newly commissioned outdoor installation, titled ‘Osteoclast (I do not know how I came to be on board this ship, this navel of my ark)’ (2021). The work was originally installed at Exchange Flags, then later relocated to Derby Square.
Composed of five kayaks, each sculptural piece reflects on the shape of a bone in the human anatomy. The sculptures anchor on the history of Liverpool as one of the most active ports in facilitating transatlantic trade in Europe. Solar’s work draws a parallel between bones – as hollowed structures, full of cavities, carriers of tissues, veins and cell communities – and vessels, vehicles of migration, transmitters of bodies and knowledge. In contrast to the enormous ships that
Teresa Solar presented a newly commissioned outdoor installation, titled ‘Osteoclast (I do not know how I came to be on board this ship, this navel of my ark)’ (2021). The work was originally installed at Exchange Flags, then later relocated to Derby Square. Composed of five kayaks, each sculptural piece reflects on the shape of a bone in the human anatomy. The sculptures anchor on the history of Liverpool as one of the most active ports in facilitating transatlantic trade in Europe. Solar’s work draws a parallel between bones – as hollowed structures, full of cavities, carriers of tissues, veins and cell communities – and vessels, vehicles of migration, transmitters of bodies and knowledge. In contrast to the enormous ships that were, and still are, built and docked in Merseyside, Solar’s kayaks, turned into a disarticulated skeleton, set the human body at sea level and evoke the sometimes-forgotten fragility of the human body over the sea. At the same time, they also celebrate our capacity for transition and transformation. Commissioned by Liverpool Biennial and Liverpool BID Company with support from Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) and the Henry Moore Foundation.
'Osteoclast (I do not know how I came to be on board this ship, this navel of my ark)'
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Teresa Solar, Osteoclast (I do not know how I came to be on board this ship, this navel of my ark), 2021. Installation view at Exchange Flags, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Mark McNulty
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Teresa Solar, Osteoclast (I do not know how I came to be on board this ship, this navel of my ark), 2021. Installation view at Exchange Flags, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Colin McPherson
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Teresa Solar, Osteoclast (I do not know how I came to be on board this ship, this navel of my ark), 2021. Installation view at Exchange Flags, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Mark McNulty
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Teresa Solar, Osteoclast (I do not know how I came to be on board this ship, this navel of my ark), 2021. Installation view at Exchange Flags, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Mark McNulty
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Teresa Solar, Osteoclast (I do not know how I came to be on board this ship, this navel of my ark), 2021. Installation view at Exchange Flags, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Mark McNulty
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Teresa Solar, Osteoclast (I do not know how I came to be on board this ship, this navel of my ark), 2021. Installation view at Exchange Flags, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Colin McPherson
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Teresa Solar, at madfaber studio, madrid, 2021. Courtesy the artist. Photography by Pablo Alzaga
Teresa Solar – Studio Visit
Get a behind the scenes look at the making of Teresa Solar’s newly commissioned outdoor installation, ‘Osteoclast (I do not know how I came to be on board this ship, this navel of my ark)’ (2021), at Exchange Flags.
Composed of five kayaks, each sculptural piece reflects on the shape of a bone in the human anatomy. The sculptures anchor on the history of Liverpool as one of the most active ports in facilitating transatlantic trade in Europe. Solar’s work draws a parallel between bones – as hollowed structures, full of cavities, carriers of tissues, veins and cell communities – and vessels, vehicles of migration, transmitters of bodies and knowledge. In contrast to the enormous ships that were, and still are, built and docked in Merseyside, Solar’s kayaks, turned into a disarticulated skeleton, set the human body at sea level and evoke the sometimes-forgotten fragility of the human body over the sea. At the same time, they also celebrate our capacity for transition and transformation.
Commissioned by Liverpool Biennial and Liverpool BID Company with support from Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) and the Henry Moore Foundation.
Video: Carl Davies, FACT Video Production