Media trends and processes underlie Abdul Halik Azeez’s work, which is also influenced by studies in economics and linguistics, and his work as a journalist. Through his projects, Azeez observes the nuances and contradictions in the urban landscape through the postwar transformation of Sri Lanka, subtly questioning the political and social constructs that continue to mould and disrupt the nation, together with the ethnic divisions, violence and unrest that have manifested in the process.

Azeez’s projects take a unique multidisciplinary form, employing multiple temporalities and stepping between devices and visual cues where ‘artworks enter into a cosmology of works that are influenced by and influence each other, creating a constantly morphing space of various discourses’. In this Triennial, several works from two series — ‘Desert Dreaming’ 2019–ongoing and ‘You are enough for someone to love, it’s true’ 2022 — examine the peculiarities of societal constructs in Sri Lanka.