A torso dripping with threads of melted sugar and prints of a fragmented body are among the artworks which demand attention at an unusual exhibition near Wits University. The theme, "50 years of kidney transplantation in South Africa", hurled four fine-art graduates into a collaboration with transplant experts to curate the show.They commissioned more than a dozen artists who address the social aspects of the body and its decay, to participate in this experiment, said Gontse Mathabathe from the Wits school of the arts.Visual artists Lehlogonolo Mashaba and Roberta Rich, sculptor Kyra Pape and performance artists Sikhumbuzo Makandula and Igshaan Adams took up the challenge.The exhibition, titled Situation, explores the physical body, organ transplants, death and materiality."I work with the materiality of my body and choose what reacts with my body. Sugar is attractive and quite toxic and tactile. It's in everything and it's not good for you," said Pape of her piece Untitled (Conversation).To create it she had to wear protective gear and a mask.Performance artist Adams has on display the video Bismillah and photos from the piece Please remember me II, revealing the ritual of cleansing the body after death in the Muslim tradition.At the opening on Thursday night nephrologist June Fabian reminded viewers of the grim realities around organ shortages.She said: "For those whose organs fail, death is inevitable without treatment. The stakes are high and everyone knows it. For many of us in South Africa with kidney failure, there is very little access to treatment."Waiting lists are thousands long and donors are few. This year, in Johannesburg, there have been nine donors. Who cares? Whose problem is it?"A huge blackboard in the front window of the Point of Order gallery pays tribute to dozens of donors.Fabian said the students were brave about exploring this interdisciplinary work which brought together the Wits school of arts, the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre and the Wits institute for social and economic research."During our work together the theme of transplantation evolved into a metaphor not only for any expensive chronic illness, but also for the tenacity and resilience that defines who we are as South Africans in a young democracy," she said.The fine-art students who curated it - Bahlakoana Lesemane, Kerry-Lee Clark, Tshegofatso Mabaso and Mathabathe - felt that many of the issues of access and disparity in transplantation resonated with the Fees Must Fall protests.'Situation' is on at The Point of Order gallery until Saturday, when it will close with an artists' walkabout from 10am to noon...