Miled Chahla begins Mother Tongue with author Rawi Hage’s novel De Niro’s Game and its reflections on motherhood, womanhood, religion, masculinity, and life during the Lebanese Civil War. Drawn to the narrator’s position as an observer, Miled turns his attention to his own surroundings. Over four months, he documents daily life between Achrafieh, where he lives, and his family’s ancestral house in Zgharta, gathering found objects, taking photographs, and revisiting the religious traditions of his upbringing.

Those observations enter the collection through exacting work with fabric and form. Miled hand-paints motifs inspired by the markings on feathers, but lengthens them into shapes with subtle tails. They suggest the way a pattern might appear on a bird in flight, when movement changes what the eye can register. Developing those marks requires careful control of moisture: too much water merges the paint, while too little prevents the shapes from forming. The painted fabrics are then steamed for hours to fix the pigment into the fibers.

Alongside these surfaces, Miled uses intricate tailoring, plastic boning to build volume, and a combination of corsage techniques in an off-white corset that took three months to develop. Silk, denim, wool, and linen bring different weights and textures into the collection. Its colors include off-white, yellow, navy, red, purple, white, and brown, informed by le pic et la chute: the idea of reaching fullness before decline begins.

Miled keeps his places, images, and traditions close, while allowing them to change through the acts of looking and making. A feather’s marking becomes a sensation of flight; familiar materials and techniques carry an unsettled sense of movement. Mother Tongue finds a new visual language within what he has observed and inherited.