At Solas Eige, we believe that art can create spaces for reflection, conversation and new ways of seeing the world around us. In presenting From the Heart of a Mother by Sana Obaid from June 30 to July 5, we launch our exhibition programme with a work that engages directly with the pressing questions and realities of our time.
When this exhibition was conceived, images and reports from Gaza were part of our daily lives. For many people, the ongoing violence and human suffering unfolded through screens, creating a complex experience of witnessing suffering from a distance while feeling powerless to intervene. We invited Sana Obaid to exhibit at Solas Eige because her work speaks directly to this experience. Rather than documenting events, her practice explores the emotional and ethical dimensions of witnessing, memory, loss and empathy.
Through printmaking, sculpture and installation, Obaid creates works that encourage us to pause and consider what it means to remain attentive to the suffering of others. Her use of absence, repetition, labour and fragile materials offers a powerful response to questions that many have grappled with over recent months: How do we hold the realities of distant conflict in our minds and hearts? How do we resist becoming desensitised to images of violence? What responsibilities come with witnessing?
The exhibition allows us to see how the space within the Solas Eige centre is being reimagined not only as a heritage and cultural centre but also as a place where people can step outside the pressures of everyday life to reflect, contemplate and encounter new perspectives.
This is why the support of the George MacLeod Trust for this exhibition is particularly significant. George MacLeod, founder of the Iona Community, believed that contemplation and action belong together, a vision of spirituality that is rooted in the lived realities of this world and which continues to inspire communities across Scotland. This support reflects a shared commitment to creating spaces where art can help us grapple with questions of justice, compassion and human dignity..
At a time when the world can often feel overwhelming, From the Heart of a Mother reminds us that attention itself can be an act of care. In bringing this work to Eigg, Solas Eige seeks to create a space where art, reflection and the realities of our shared world meet—inviting us to pause, to witness and to reaffirm our shared humanity.
