The artists in this collection all represent in myriad forms the matter of figures in space and the space between bodies and the world. Floating heads, downcast eyes, animals, humans and things which resemble them, come together to reveal a series of original and timely expanded portraits that address intimate, personal and political responses to the contested spaces of the contemporary moment. Even when coupled, they present a sense of the solitary figure, distanced from the social and feeling their way back into the world. All of these artists offer moving and critical imaginations which very much reward close looking — though please do remember to never smile at a crocodile.