My Mothers, The Siren, The Vessel, The Womb is a solo exhibition by Egyptian-French artist Hoda Tawakol, currently on view at Gallery Isabelle. This show examines the profound impact of three maternal figures in the artist’s life, delving into themes of memory, femininity, and motherhood. Visitors will be able to experience Tawakol’s work until 28 March 2025.
At the heart of the exhibition is My Mothers, a three-channel video featuring Super-8 film fragments from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s. This piece reflects on the lives of three significant figures in Tawakol’s upbringing: her mother Honey, grandmother Toutou, and childhood caretaker Hosneia. The footage, largely filmed by Toutou, captures the artist’s mother’s flamboyant yet distant presence, Tawakol’s grandmother’s nurturing stability, and the warmth of Hosneia. Through these complex narratives, Tawakol investigates memory, identity, and maternal influence.
The exhibition also presents In Fragments of Return (2024–25), a series of photomontages that transform archival family photographs with symbolic motifs and tattoo-like ink markings, reflecting themes of identity and erasure. Additionally, the show displays Tawakol’s sculptural works, including Lure (2024), a series of soft textile forms symbolising fertility and motherhood, and Nude (2025), sculptures crafted from nylons, rice, and resin that reimagine the female body. Other notable pieces include Hair (2011–2014) and Warrior (2010), which use synthetic hair to create spectral forms that challenge societal expectations of femininity.
About the artist
Hoda Tawakol (b. 1986, London, UK) is a Hamburg-based artist whose work spans textiles, mixed-media sculpture, fabric collages, installations, and works on paper. After earning a Master of Business Administration from ESCP Europe (Paris, Oxford, Berlin) in 1993, she pursued a Diploma in Fine Arts at the Hochschule für bildende Künste (HfbK) (Hamburg, Germany), graduating in 2011.
Tawakol’s practice is deeply influenced by the feminist movement of the 1970s, using contemporary textile art to deconstruct symbols and archetypes that restrict female agency. Her work explores movement, cultural exchange, and fluidity, reflecting her experiences living between Germany and France. Through her art, she interrogates questions of gender, the body, politics, and identity, challenging conventional perceptions of femininity and female autonomy.
Her artworks are part of various solo and group exhibitions, such as Feed Me the Milk of Your Eyes (solo) (the Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin, Germany, 2024); Seeing through Space (the Museum for Art in Wood, Philadelphia, USA, 2023); Silent Transformations, Biennale Internationale Donna (Trieste, Italy, 2021); and Archaea (Beton Art Space, Artist Run Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2014), to name a few.
In 2010, Tawakol was granted the Achievement Grant Award of the Ministry of Science and Research for foreign students (Germany) and the New Position Art Prize (Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Hamburg). Her artworks are held in different public and private collections, including the Weserburg Museum of Modern Art (Bremen, Germany), the iSelf Collection (London, UK), the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation (Abu Dhabi), and the Progressive Art Collection (Mayfield Village, Ohio, USA).
To get more information about My Mothers, The Siren, The Vessel, The Womb, please visit the official web page of the exhibition.
You might also be interested in visiting I Jump – Will I Stick the Landing?, Shama Al Hamed’s solo show, and I’ve Got to Know You Now We May Never Meet Again by Sola Olulode.
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