Taraneh Hermami, Common Language, 2024, acrylic and aluminum, PS 163 The Arthur A. Schomburg Educational Campus, Bronx ​

Common Language is a site-specific artwork created by Taraneh Hemami for the entry stairwell at the new Arthur A. Schomburg Educational Campus, Bronx. The hanging sculpture features sixty spheres suspended from mirrored, cloud-like forms that are mounted on the ceiling. The spheres are composed of colored, acrylic letters with differing degrees of transparency that cast colorful shadows throughout the space. The mirrored forms above extend these reflections onto the ceiling producing an ever-changing experience for viewers. The dynamic installation can be experienced from many angles and viewpoints including from below in the stairwell and lobby, from the 1st floor as well as from outside through the windows.  

To create the artwork, Hemami researched language family trees which describe how languages relate to one another and how they developed throughout history. She used this data to form the structure and organization of her sculpture. Each sphere represents one of the sixty most spoken languages in the world and is composed of acrylic letters or characters drawn from that language’s alphabet. The spheres hang at different lengths and range in size from 4 feet to 6 inches in diameter. Their size is relative to the number of speakers of each language globally, and their color corresponds to the language’s family, demonstrating the unique but interrelated nature of languages. Hemami’s artwork visualizes the dazzling abundance of languages that connect our world and enable us to communicate and collaborate across cultures, histories and perspectives.