DUBAI: The Egyptian artist discusses his glass work, resembling a map of the Arab world, which is on display at Galleria Continua in Dubai until April 22. In my work, I explore socio-political issues that affect me. In addition, there are various sides to myself and my work; there’s the spiritual, the historical and the sarcastic. For example, I made a work with the McDonald’s logo, criticizing the fast-food culture imposed on us. In Arab society, we like to take two to three hours over dinner; we like to eat, laugh and chat. But there’s a new culture hanging over us, where we have to eat fast and get to work. For a long time, I’ve seen the Arab region going through difficult and upsetting times. There is fragmentation: If you look at the lower right side of the map, we lost southern Sudan and a part of Somalia. Syria, Lebanon, Libya and Iraq are deteriorating. What more is there to say? The world and the map are changing. I feel like the whole region is under threat and it seems we can’t get out of some factors, be it religious or political, that have made life difficult.  There is a state of rupture that I expressed through shattered glass. Shattered glass: That is what we are. The idea came to me in 2015, but it was challenging. I actually made it with clay and matchsticks. I was thinking of how I could put shattered glass between two layers of smooth glass. It took us three years to get it right. With a team, we made a drawing of the map, then we made a cracked layer of glass that was placed between two layers of normal glass. We put it in the oven and it worked in the end.  It’s a hopeless case, but we’re trying to alert people. As an artist, I view my role as someone holding a magnifying glass and looking closely at things that someone passing by might miss out on. But I want them to see, watch, think about it, and try to do something. Through this work, I want people to look at our true state. We’ve lost ourselves. We are in the utmost need to be united and stand next to each other.