Nada Mubarak’s latest exhibition, she said in a statement, is “an invitation for viewers to stop, look and acknowledge the people surrounding their everyday lives who have been rendered close to invisible by their marginalization. Some pose proudly, while others seem indifferent.”Much of Mubarak’s work is inspired by the culture of Ancient Egypt, but used to convey topical socio-political messages. “Each figure has a corresponding animal rooted in our history,” she explained. “In matching them with the animals, I imagine what they once were, the many things they could have become, and what they are up against.”

Mubarak’s current exhibition, she said, follows on from 2017’s capsule work “Look Me in the Eye,” and “draws on the same notion of the tension between the strength and fragility of the human experience.” That tension is illustrated here by the girl’s missing ‘shib shib’ (Egyptian slang for ‘flip-flop’).