research: Mona Hatoum

Mona Hatoum

Research

I first came across Mona Hatoums work very literally by walking across it, in an exhibition that has had a lasting impact on me.

It was a controversial group retrospective of 200 female artists at the Pompidou titled 'Elle' in 2010. Corps étranger (1994) and Deep Throat (1996) are endoscopic journeys, video recordings of Hatoum's body. One of these videos was projected vertically down onto the floor so could stand as if you were falling slowly feet first through a fleshy helter skelter. Squirm inducing, uncomfortable viewing, despite being familiar with such images, I remembered thinking what sort of artist would do this to themselves and knew little of the background or intent of her work. I was directed towards her work this year after discussions about anxiety inducing images and my intent for my video project.

Her sculptures are equally interesting, simple statement installations that are beautiful and intriguing. 

marbles, world map for venice biennale

Born in 1952, Mona Hatoum is Palestinian but grew up in Lebanon.

She is a contemporary installation and video artist, most known for her works addressing exile, politics and the body.
She was displace to Britain in 1975/. Thinking the stay would be shortlived she enrolled at art school, an experience which not only politicised her more than her previous witness of conflict, but also triggered an interest in class divides and femisinism.
She studied at Goldsmiths in the late 70s. 
Her work has a number of themes, she uses sculpture, video and installation.
Her most famous works include an endoscopic video of her insides and a touching video work using letters and images from her mother back in Lebanon.
She is represented by the white cube gallery and has exhibited in the Venice Biennale twice.
She cites her influences as conceptual and minimalist art.

Sexuality, exile, uprooting, violence and intimacy

 " I grew up in Beirut in a family that had suffered a tremendous loss and existed with a sense of dislocation"

"There is a sense of instability and restlessness in the work. This is the way in which the work is informed by my background"

"There is a sense of instability and restlessness in the work. This is the way in which the work is informed by my background"

"There is a sense of instability and restlessness in the work. This is the way in which the work is informed by my background"

"Later, when I got into the area of installation and object making, I wouldn’t say I went back to a minimal aesthetic as such, it was more a kind of reductive approach, if you like, where the forms can be seen as abstract aesthetic structures, but can also be recognized as cages, lockers, chairs, beds… The work therefore becomes full of associations and meaning—a reflection on the social environment we inhabit. Unlike minimal objects, they are not self-referential."

References:

Conversations with artists

http://www.macval.fr/english/residences/residence-archives/article/mona-hatoum-5044

http://bombmagazine.org/article/2130/mona-hatoum

interview by janine antoni

http://en.qantara.de/content/interview-with-mona-hatoum-the-idea-is-what-matters