you are in heaven but suddenly everything begins to burn is the title of a new exhibition by artist Bassam Issa Al-Sabah. The project conjures a bleak speculative future, brought to life through video, sculptural and olfactory installation. The narrative within Al-Sabah’s work foretells an inescapable dystopia, built on the ruins of capitalism amid total ecological collapse. This desolate world leaks from the digital realm back into our present-day bodies through the molecules of a perfume, the pixels of an image and the decibels of a soundscape. 

The scent at the centre of this exhibition was developed during a perfume workshop as part of a Micro Residency at Cow House Studios, convened by the artist in collaboration with Kunstverein Aughrim in May 2024.