At the centre of the exhibition are Tallaa’s large-scale portraits, which move beyond traditional representation. Rather than depicting individual identities, the faces become “a trace of human experiences, a document, and a witness to a specific time.” Built through layers of sand collected in the UAE, chalk powder, pigments, glue, and acrylic, the works emerge through a process Tallaa compares to archaeological excavation, where forms appear, dissolve, and reveal themselves through the material. The dense, textured surfaces preserve the marks of time, memory, and lived experience, while the use of UAE sand connects displacement, place, and belonging by bringing together past and present within a single surface. These portraits do not portray victimhood or survival, but endurance and the quiet traces of what has been carried.