Our greenhouse planet spins through space, warmed by the Sun and surrounded by a vital mix of life-supporting gases — our precious atmosphere, the air we breathe. Other planets have their own atmospheres, each a different composition. Only gravity holds this gauzy cloak to Earth.

Part transparent and part reflective, the aerosolar spheres of Tomás Saraceno’s expansive installation Drift: A cosmic web of thermodynamic rhythms 2022 catch and refract the light. They remind us of the complex dynamics of air and model a new future of flight and freedom of movement, powered entirely by the energy of the Sun.

Air as we know it did not exist when the Earth formed. Volcanism shaped our primordial atmosphere in the Hadean era, with water, algae and other plant life emerging in the aeons following. Dora Budor takes us back to this early history in her trio of chambers Origins I–III 2019, offering a view over volcano-punctuated landscapes animated by occasionally erupting clouds of pigment. There is movement but no life. Beautiful and unsettling — this is not air you would want to breathe.

Feature image: Tomás Saraceno's Drift: A cosmic web of thermodynamic rhythms 2022 installed at GOMA for ‘Air’, March 2023 / © Tomás Saraceno / Photograph: J Ruckli, QAGOMA