The Invisible Body of Everyday Life

The body is our first measure of the world. Through our skin we feel heat and cold; through our gestures we develop habits; within domestic spaces we learn to recognise our own presence. Yet it is precisely this everyday dimension - so familiar that it often becomes almost invisible - that lies at the heart of Body Quotidian, the exhibition bringing together the work of Laila Majid and Inaam Zafar at the Sharjah Art Foundation. The exhibition presents recent sculptures, photographs and paintings by the two artists, placing distinct artistic practices in dialogue through their shared use of metaphor. Rather than depicting the human body directly, both evoke its presence through surfaces, materials, colours and everyday objects drawn from ordinary experience. For Laila Majid, the body almost always appears indirectly. In the series Steam 07, for example, an image emerges on a bathroom mirror clouded by steam. Printed onto a reflective surface, the work also incorporates the viewer's own reflection, making each observer an integral part of the piece. Similarly, the latex sculptures in the Blinds series recall curtains, partitions and domestic membranes - seemingly ordinary elements that suggest the delicate boundary between inside and outside, between what the body reveals and what it conceals. Inaam Zafar, by contrast, works through painting, where silhouettes, forms and colours seem to preserve the memory of everyday gestures. Her images do not depict specific events but create atmospheres in which the body remains present even when it is not directly visible. The focus shifts from portraiture to trace, from the individual to the spaces they inhabit. Bringing the two artists together reveals a shared terrain of inquiry. Both explore how the body continues to shape our experience of the world at a time when digital technologies are constantly transforming our perception of identity, youth, beauty and even truth itself.