There are several aspects to Mona Hatoumīs work in this exhibition with
display the essential elements of her artistic development from the
mid-1990īs. Since the beginning of her career a notable characteristic has been the
continuing evolution of her exploration of the subtle but powerful
relation between aesthetics, ethics and politics.
"... most people look for a very specific meaning, mostly wanting to
explain [my work] specifically in relation to my background. I find
it more exciting when a work reverberates with several meanings and
paradoxes and contradictions. Explaining it as meaning this or that
inevitably turns it into something fixed rather than something in a
state of flux. A work of art has two aspects: the natural, physical
aspect, which I think of as the conscious aspect that the artist can
manipulate and shape; and then there is the very complex cultural and
unconscious aspect of the art work. This is rich and full of meanings
and associations, and it is as impossible to explain fully or
comprehend as an individual or the social subconscious. Years after
(...) I still discover interesting associations, sometimes pointed
out to me by viewers."
Interview by Michael Archer. Phaidon Press Limited, 1997
Avoiding political and moral demagogy, Mona Hatoum favours a more
individual and intimist approach, which is, nevertheless, politically
(in)formed. She places herself, and the viewer, in a privileged position
to consider the complex phenomena of daily life. The building up of that
position becomes the core of her research. She achieves this both from
within her personal artistic discourse, and from within the art system
itself.
Her work emerges mainly from daily life, unhampered by the conventions of
public and private or intimate and institutional. She manipulates
household objects and the human body making use of a variety of
materials: industrial, natural and even the immaterial: soap, corrugated
iron, glass beads, hair, memories or images. She operates on different
scales from the miniature to the grand; she questions arbitrary
boundaries from maps to cages to borders. All this leads us to realise
that Mona Hatoum is not simply producing one more piece of art but rather
redefining the core of her own work. Moreover in each exhibition she is
not just showing new languages or themes, but is also creating symbolic
and communal positions and "platforms".
Mona Hatoum was born in 1952, Beirut, Lebanon. Currently based in London
from where she travels to her numerous artistic residences and
site-specific projects. These constant travelling is essential for
creating the conditions for her work.
IMAGE:
Mona Hatoum
Grater Divide, 2002
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