Hailing from Saudi Arabia, Al Faraj has previously showcased his work across Dubai and Jeddah. “I think what really drove the idea into becoming this work was mainly seeing the robot Sophia being awarded the Saudi citizenship on TV, in contrast to my experience in trying to make a film about a group of displaced undocumented people in southern Saudi Arabia,” shares Al Faraj. “This was also my first attempt into balancing between the form and the content, make both influence each other in the work so that three chapters unfold in a sculpture of screens that's built and designed on three planes.”

“I don’t play music, but I felt that at times I was playing music by ear with this exhibition, listening to conversations around me as they were coming to the surface,” says Inouye.

Composition and sound are also key to Mohammed Al Faraj’s 10-minute video Sophia (2018-2019). Projected on three surfaces – two joining walls and the floor – the work merges real news footage of Sophia, the first robot to be granted Saudi Arabian citizenship, with reportage about a distressed sea turtle in Jeddah and other images of the artist’s home town, Al Hassa, in Saudi Arabia. It has an apocalyptic feel to it, particularly as Al Faraj has introduced purposeful glitches, which the curator says represent a kind of “digital decay that anticipates the demise of our computational order”.

For me, the show feels like a snapshot of now, which although spreads across a wide social and political geography, is talking of something much more central to human consciousness – the idea of a common intuition or a common idea that can traverse boundaries and borders and indeed, crash through the surface.

Surface Tension runs until September 7 at Sharjah Art Foundation, Al Mureijah Square, Sharjah, www.sharjahart.org

Also located in the piazza of Rubbat Al-Khunji House, an outdoor exhibition and visual study called The City in my Playground, a collaborative work between Zahra Bundakji and artist Mohammed Al Faraj, where he and children of the neighborhood take ownership of the streets through activities, explorations, and guided workshops.

As part of SAC’s art and culture events, Sharbatli House is also hosting an aleatory created by Nasser Alshemimry. The term aleatory refers to the random interactions of different sound sources to generate a whole one large sound that is more than the sum of its parts. Legendary musician John Cage pioneered the use of aleatory in his compositions. Aleatory allows the composition to be ever evolving and influenced by the environment, surroundings, and observers. Additionally, visitors can enjoy a Book Fair Co-space at the Historic Jeddah Season. The Book Fair is designed as a co-space of knowledge at the Sharbatli House Annex, which has been repurposed to offer a space that brings people together by presenting a design bookshop, reading space and lush gathering spot. It is a quiet modest' space, serving as a canvas for community engagement and debate.

Opening on Thursday, February 8th, at 7:30pm, Athr presents “The Clocks Are Striking Thirteen”, a group exhibition, as part of 21,39 Jeddah Arts. The participating artists are Aya Haidar, Ayman Yossri, Dana Awartani, Larissa Sansour, Maha Nasrallah, Moath Alofi, Mohammed Abdelrasoul, Mohammed Al Faraj, Mohammed Monaiseer, Muhannad Shono, Nasser Al Salem, Reem Al Nasser, Sara Abdu, Tamara Al Samerai, Wael Shawky and Zahra Al Ghamdi. The exhibition is curated by Maya El Khalil.