Gareth Fuller is an artist and explorer. His work acts as a layered gaze into the identity of urban and rural places, transcribing their personal, geographical, and social meanings into what he calls ‘maps of the mind’. The results of these transcriptions are vast and intricate hand-drawn compositions – a series of visual portraits that express his personal and purposeful wanderings.
This detail shows the headquarters of Chinese Central Television, a building that resembles a pair of trousers. To the right, it includes Citic Tower, known locally as China Zun - Zun meaning a type of ceremonial Chinese wine chalice, thus the image of the wine bottle, with glasses at its base.
A universal thirst for beer defines North Korea’s selection of breweries and microbreweries. This imagined site is included as a feature from a district I was not allowed to visit.
By the sixth ring road of Beijing, I witnessed an unusual marriage proposal. The bride-to-be’s ring was delivered by an aeroplane. This eye-witness story has been future proofed – the ring bearer is now a drone.
