In her work from the early 2000s, Mehretu reimagined the type of ordered space typically found in traditional European painting. She combined layers of buildings, explosions, and graphics from transit systems and airport terminals in Babel Unleashed, creating a micro-cosm of a metropolis, “full of migrants in transit, people walking by, through, past, and with each other.” For Mehretu, transit suggests the movement of both people and perspective: the staircase, for example, could represent ascent, but could also draw the viewer into the composition.