ART CELEBRITIES
MONA HATOUM:
A WORLD CLASS
ARTIST
Born: 1952,
Beirut, Lebanon
Education: Slade School of Art, London
Currently: Living and working in London
Mona
Hatoum is a Palestinian woman from Lebanon. In 1975 at the young age of 23,
Hatoum went to visit London, England. During her stay sudden civil war in
broke out in Lebanon, and she was stranded in London as a result. The
restricted and limited contact with her home instilled within her fear for her
family's safety. Hatoum chose to stay and live in London where she has
remained for most of her life. It was here that she decided to study art.
After her graduation in 1981, Hatoum first explored the realm of performance
art in the early 1980s.
Beginning
in the mid 1980s, she has experimented with other art spheres
including
installations, videos, sculpture and photography. Her cumulative body of work
encompasses a diverse medley of mediums. Much of her work utilizes materials
and objects that normally generate associations with comfort, intimacy and
familiarity. Yet she twists and distorts these into pieces which present the
idea of bodily harm or danger to an individual.
Photo:
Carcasses: Photography by Mona Hatoum. From a series of photographs taken of
animals in cities such as Vienna, Paris and Jerusalem, many of which present
patterns and motifs similar to those she has explored sculpturally. Some of
these images were included in her recent traveling survey exhibition organized
by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.
Her use of industrial materials, along with her style, resemble the Minimalist and Conceptual work first introduced in the 1960s. The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago was the site of Mona Hatoum's first major museum exhibition in the US in 1997. Her work is said to be drawn from both her Lebanese exile as well as her awareness of racial and gender issues. They possess a personal and a political side. She insists that her viewers follow their own instinctual reactions, while still enabling them to see her perspective. Hatoum's recent exhibition at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art dealt intimately with her ideas concerning the domestic and possibly female sphere. Many art critics believe her dark depictions of domesticity relate directly to her Palestinian and Lebanese identities and her condition in exile. Hatoum's strong and vivid work is successful not only in its juxtaposition of her very different cultures and ideologies, but also in its ability to evoke an emotional reaction from her audience.
Photos,
below: Mouli Julienne (x21), 2000, steel
Exhibit at Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
"Mona
Hatoum interview with Janine Antoni." Mona Hatoum: Domestic Disturbance.
North Adams, MA: 2001.19-32.
This is a revealing interview between two friends and colleagues. The
personal quality of the article results from Antoni's first hand experience
of creating, working and exhibiting with Hatoum. Hatoum is able to talk
freely and openly about a variety of her pieces from her large body of work.
Gaining the artists perspective through such an intimate reading contributes
to the reading, viewing and understanding of her work
Sheena
Wagstaff. "Uncharted Territory: New Perspectives in the Art of Mona Hatoum."
Mona Hatoum: The Entire World as a Foreign Land. London: 2000. 27-41.
This article examines the cultural and intellectual influences and contexts of
Hatoum's work and compares her with other contemporary figures. A few pieces
are deeply, individually explored by observing the ideas and issues at the
point of conception. Issues of the body, feminism, language and exile are all
addressed in the context of Hatoum's life and the consequent effects on
specific pieces of her work.