Fragile, miniature flowers shaped from flakes of dead skin, and ephemeral sculptures that consist of little but talcum powder—Ezzam Rahman’s practice is grounded in a keen sense of materiality. Animating these otherwise mute objects, however, is the artist’s living, breathing body. The skin is his own, culled over a period of time from the soles of his feet, and the powder sculptures are remnants of his performances, into which his perspiration is mixed. As Ezzam puts it: “These works are representations of self, about that impermanent moment of someone’s presence.” The human body, then, as both thematic concern and physical fact, haunts these delicate, evanescent pieces, which channel the generally unpalatable realities of our flesh into an exquisite aesthetic.

A game of chess, played by two mechanical turks based on collected game data, runs according to a computer programme. Instead of the usual black and white pieces, there is an orange team and a white one; the orange team is significantly disadvantaged, consisting only of Pawns, a Knight and a King. Bani’s installation, necropolis for those without sleep, is premised on an asymmetry of power. It evokes political, social and economic hierarchies, distilling the complex networks of power at play in our climate of neoliberalism into a purposefully imbalanced game. The audience is likewise affected, where one viewer is allowed only 50 steps in the gallery, while another enjoys free reign within the space—reflecting the anxieties of globalisation and disequilibrium of democracy in the twenty-first century.

Climate change has been a persistent global issue, yet the reality of climate change is disconnected from the urban environment where the world’s majority lives in. Enclosed in concrete and steel structures, the threat of a potential sea level rise remains alien to those within, despite compelling evidence of the phenomenon. Too Far, Too Near is a two-part installation with audio-kinetic sculptures accompanying a video of melting ice sheets and glaciers filmed on location in Greenland. Taking viewers on an immersive, perceptual journey to experience this haunting landscape, the work is an intimate reflection on the changes taking place at the edges of the earth. It reminds us that humankind and nature are linked, and that these changes will ultimately have impact on us all.