In his ongoing project “Cement Eclipses”, Issac Cordal takes an unconventional approach to observing our behavior as a social mass. His alluring and surprising miniature cement figures placed in public locations, featured in our new issue and here on our blog over the years, reveal scenes that zoom in the routine tasks of the contemporary human being. The Spanish artist describes his work as “quickly opening doors to other worlds”, often where the “unwelcome” or unfortunate are welcoming the viewer to consider the issues that face the real world.
Cordal expands on this idea in his latest solo offering, “Welcome”, now on view at the recently opened Street Art Place Gallery in Italy. The show features a series of new figures, including his “American Dream series” and complimentary photographs of his figures in the context of their unforgiving public environments, remnants of which are installed as discarded found objects throughout the gallery.
One of the installations on display features an umbrella from the EU parliament that inspired the artist to address EU’s double policies on”“welcoming” homeless people who need a shelter: “I’ve found it in Brussels with the logo of EU. Apparently, when it’s is raining, it’s possible to take one of that ones in the European commission for free. It is paradoxical that we can provide an umbrella for our bureaucrats but let people outdoors on the edge of Europe,” Cordal shared in an email to Hi-Fructose.
“My idea was to make a reflection of different topics like the refugees crises, global warming, economy… “Welcome” reflects on the world that we leave to those who come after us. It is a reflection of the side effects of progress and our relationship with the modern outdoors. Welcome should be more than a word written in a mat.”
The sculptures created by Romanian sculptor 
The 
Malaysian artist Umibaizurah Mahir's meticulously crafted ceramics are almost exclusively in the form of stylized, comical creatures, like three dimensional hand-made cartoons. The complex psychology of her collectible "toys for adults” places them at the intersection of man, society and nature, where nothing is what it seems. Like Collodi's "Pinocchio", these naughty objects are often on the run, trying to escape on hand-painted ceramic wheels and wings, climbing their pedestals or breaking out of their frames.