Fathi Hassan transforms photographs, paintings, installations, drawings, and wall interventions into striking visual languages, where deliberately illegible text underscores the fragility of languages and oral traditions endangered by colonial histories. Hassan’s artistic investigations focus on the intersection of writing and speech, engaging with the erasure of ancient Nubian languages under colonial rule. Drawing on Kufic-inspired scripts, he transforms symbols and calligraphy from his heritage into abstract, textured compositions that hover between graphic form and literal meaning. His works often employ vibrant colors and collage, where textual elements merge with organic shapes drawn from the natural world—human faces, plants, flowers, animals, and celestial bodies—giving the text a sculptural or visual presence as compelling as its semantic content. Throughout his career, Hassan has also explored three-dimensional forms, most notably in his acclaimed Containers series, where vases and vessel shapes become a vehicle for the interplay of text, texture, and cultural memory. His work continually interrogates the power of language, symbol, and form as vessels of history and identity. ...
