In this series of work that is central to the artists response to The Sunderland Collection, Fathi moves beyond space that is bound by time or geography. Here the artist imagines a place where characters across time, territories and disciplines converge and meet.
Philosophers, scientists, artists, writers and sportspeople who have been profoundly influential on global culture, as well as the artist make their way onto reproductions of maps from The Sunderland Collection. The contours of the land masses or boundaries dissolve into profiles of his selected characters, calligraphic marks and arabesque designs. Here Fathi not only celebrates his personal influences, but also imagines a diasporic community with a transnational sense of self that transcends the borders and boundaries of nations, time and location.
