I Can No Longer Produce the Limits of My Own Body

The fourth exhibition at NIKA Project Space is a group show for seven artists highlighting ecofeminist perspectives, curated by Nadine Khalil and featuring work by Liane Al Ghusain, Lilia Ziamou, Dalia Khalife, Sara Niroobakhsh, Mirna Bamieh with Isaac Sullivan, and Christiane Peschek.

Khalil notes that the show features predominantly women-centric perspectives, but says “the works are not about the gendered body per se. Rather, they take a post-human perspective of entanglement and fluidity and interrogate the notion of boundaries by creating unique and site-specific architectures of occupying space – whether this is building a kitchen for fermentation or creating the material manifestations of grief”.

The standout is probably the second iteration of Sour Things, a multimedia installation by Palestinian artist Mirna Bamieh. Sour Things: The Kitchen builds on an original commission for Sharjah Biennial 15 with a new sound composition by the UAE-based American artist Isaac Sullivan.

Palestinian-Kuwaiti artist and writer Liane Al Ghusain explores a number of forms including video, sculpture, and text “to research the fields of mysticism, feminism, post-colonialism, and science fiction”. Lebanese artist and scenographer Dalia Khalife does installations, site-specific interventions and paintings which examine elements of spectacle and play within power structures, social events, and rituals. Abu Dhabi-based Iranian-Canadian artist Sara Niroobakhsh, references the notion of cultural objects through installations and performance layered with her own technology and science-based interventions. Greek-American NY-based Lilia Ziamou explores how technology can transcend the biological and ideological constraints that shape the body in digital paintings, sculptures and drawings. And Christiane Peschek, an artist who says she lives and works in The Cloud, produces multi-sensory installation and retouched self-portraits “observing the possibilities of online and offline intertwined lifestyles”.

Should be an interesting show, and it’s good to see that it’s getting a decent run.

To 7 January.

Above: Mirna Bamieh, Sour Things (2023)