Teresa Solar Abboud Tunnel Boring Machine, 2026

Teresa Solar Abboud large sculpture Tunnel Boring Machine consists of two elongated orange shapes extending vertically from a dark red-brown clay base that is fixed on a metal plinth. The plinth is filled with an angular object whose texture and color is reminiscent of concrete. The orange parts of the sculpture appear to organically grow out of the clay base, giving them an anatomical appearance while at the same time evoking mechanical objects.

Solar Abboud, who started her career as a video artist, began the series titled Tunnel Boring Machines from her fascination with scenography and its flat and constructed environments. Her series grew from the idea of combining the physical solidity of sculpture with the ephemeral quality of scenography and its transformational power. The sculptures are constructed using a labor-intensive technique that flattens their surfaces. Their forms are then painted and camouflaged through the use of intense color and an ultra-matte finish. Rather than catching light, they absorb it. The result is something paradoxical: sculptures that deny their own volume and seem to hover between the virtual and the real.