The works address and interact with one another: in Pour (Déjà-vu) (2025), the milk being poured into a glass is still contained; however, in Flood (2025), water levels have dramatically risen, overflowing and sweeping away cars, whose simple geometric forms are reflected in the oddly clear waters.

Pour stems from Alftan’s series of diptychs subtitled Déjà-vu that feature two sequential actions within the same scene. Here, the series’ characteristic temporal shift is displayed by the amount of milk poured: from a splash of milk in the first image to a glass filled to the brim, threatening to spill over the sides in mere moments, in the second. Installed in different rooms in order to be seen separately, the two elements activate viewers’ memories and emphasise the space and physicality of Alftan’s canvases as objects in and of themselves.

By blurring the boundaries between the ordinary and the historical, the works echo and engage with traditions of still life and trompe-l’œil painting that have long explored the significance of everyday objects. The framing with white mat board further stresses this perception, creating a visual dialogue with museum display and classical framing techniques, thereby drawing the viewer in even more.

The physicality of Alftan’s use of paint underscores that her subject is painting itself and the question of how images are mediated through the imprecision of memory, focusing less on the representation of meaning and more on the conditions of representation. In Hand in Pocket (2025), for example, the paint mimics the fabrics more than it figures them.

In Haircut (2024), the strands of hair about to be cut are formed by obvious grooves of paint. Each piece is a critical image of itself, simultaneously object and image of the object.