In ‘Work in Translation’, the process of garment making is uncloaked and splayed out across the gallery walls. Flat shapes resembling offcuts are painted directly onto the wall alongside chalked outlines of dress patterns that become unstitched, an organza sleeve is emitted from a castaway piece of identical fabric and, panning across, a matting of wool and threads is affixed to the wall. The intersection of fragments suggests that all derive or advance each other at some point. The pieces are assembled in various states of resolution, inferring that the piece is perpetually in a state of ‘work’.

Composed as a landscape, the viewer can appreciate the function of each component while simultaneously viewing the whole.

Reflecting on the role and work of the tailor is intrinsic to mapping components. In an age of mass industry, the machine and individualistic culture, the tailor’s work-a piecing together of parts spawned from specialised knowledge and intellect- is undervalued, overlooked or not even considered at all.

By deconstructing the garment Fattal is working to reveal this point. She works to preserve a language that is becoming long forgotten.