Of Land and Water marks the first presentation of works from the Sharjah Art Foundation Collection on the east coast, unfolding at Kalba Ice Factory until 31 May 2026. Curated by Jiwon Lee, with Abdulla Aljanahi, Amal Al Ali, Souraya Kreidieh and Shahd Murshed, it brings together rarely seen large-scale works by nine international artists and collectives whose work reflect on borders, belonging, and the shifting relationship between land and sea. Its title echoes the Malay term tanah air; a phrase that binds the solidity of land with the fluidity of water, evoking the intertwined geographies of homeland while hinting at the tensions that emerged when this idea became a rallying cry for nationhood.
Set against Kalba’s coastal landscape, the exhibition considers how ideologies attempt to fix territories that are, by nature, open and porous. It raises questions about the forces that determine who belongs, who is excluded and which forms of knowledge continue to move freely despite partitions imposed by the state. Together, the works trace the emotional and political contours of migration, memory and displacement.
The exhibition opens with Babak Afrassiabi and Nasrin Tabatabai’s Plate It with Silver (2015), a film that follows rumours of spirits travelling along the Strait of Hormuz, capturing the informal movement of people and goods across its waters. Nearby, Taloi Havini’s Beroana (shell money) IV (2016) reflects on alternative systems of value through traditional Bougainville currency. Works by Walid Siti draw attention to the fragility of homeland through vacant flags and spectral landscapes, while GCC’s Positive Pathways (+) (2016) echoes the rhetoric of wellness campaigns in the Gulf.
Questions of migration and shifting identities emerge in Nabil El Makhloufi’s paintings such as The Consideration (2021), as well as in Nesrine Khodr’s Extended Sea (2017), which frames endurance against the vastness of the Mediterranean. Marwan Rechmaoui’s works probe Lebanon’s evolving coastline and the unresolved histories embedded in its architecture. Jompet Kuswidananto revisits Indonesia’s layered past through Keroncong Concordia (2019), and the exhibition closes with John Akomfrah’s Vertigo Sea (2015), a three-channel film that interlaces narratives of migration, ecology and conflict. Across these works, water functions as border, passage, and connective tissue, challenging fixed notions of land and identity.
Location: Kalba Ice Factory, Sharjah, UAE
Date: 17 October 2025 until 31 May 2026