For over five decades, Simone Fattal has eschewed any singular form or subject in her wide-ranging practice. In this deeply personal volume, Fattal's close friend and confidante Hans Ulrich Obrist delves into the artist's past to explore the remarkable breadth of her body of work.
Alongside prose and interviews with Fattal by Obrist, a foreword by Omar Kholeif situates Fattal's early practice in the broader schema of art to emerge in West Asia, while an afterword by Rasha Salti delves into the influence of European and Arabic mythology on Fattal's artmaking.
Imagine/otherwise presents critical biographies of underrepresented
queer, non-binary, or
female-identifying artists. Edited by
Omar Kholeif, the series emphasizes the concept of "female worlding" with books that serve as field guides into previously unexplored, overlooked, or inaccessible artistic lives. The overall proposition of the series (to "imagine" a world "otherwise") stems from the desire to find a different way of writing and reading about art. Can art be examined unreservedly, unburdened of the limits imposed by the dominant hand of hegemony?
Current editorial advisors for the series include
Skye Arundhati Thomas, Zoe Butt, Carla Chammas, Alison Hearst, and Sarah Perks.
Curator and critic Hans Ulrich Obrist (born 1968 in Zurich, lives and works in London) is considered one of the most influential figure in the art world. He joined the Serpentine Gallery (London) as Co-Director of International Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of International Projects in 2006.
Simone Fattal (born 1942 in Damascus) is a Lebanese-American painter, sculptor and ceramist. After studying philosophy, first in Beirut and then Paris, Fattal returned to Beirut in 1969 and began life as a painter—creating sensuous abstract works that diverged from the predominantly figurative paintings commonly exhibited in Lebanon at the time. In 1980, after a decade spent in Lebanon as a painter, Fattal fled the civil war, abandoned her painting practice, and settled in Sausalito, California, where she founded the revolutionary publishing house Post-Apollo Press. In 1988, after studying sculpture in San Francisco, Fattal was consumed by another wave of creativity that led her to pursue ceramic sculptures—a medium in which she continues to work to this day from her studio in Paris.
