From the press release: Mona Hatoum (British/Palestinian) unites in her work an interest in aesthetics with themes that are political or social by focusing on conflicted subjects such as violence, oppression, and voyeurism, often in relation to the human body. Her art is located on the border between reality and illusion, where recognizable everyday objects are distorted and transformed into unpleasant and sometimes physically dangerous objects. Rubber crutches, a carpet of pins, and electrified kitchen utensils are a few examples of Hatoum's unique body of work.
The exhibition at Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall includes around 60 artworks, as well as a large-scale installation made specifically for Magasin 3. Hatoum has exhibited widely in Europe, USA, and Canada. In 1995, she was nominated for the Turner Prize and was included in the Venice Biennial.
Mona Hatoum Born 1952, lives and works in London and Berlin.
Mona Hatoum, one of the most distinguished artists of her generation, unites in her work an interest in aesthetics with themes that are political or social in character. The exhibition at Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, produced in collaboration with Hamburger Kunsthalle and Kunstmuseum Bonn, is the most comprehensive presentation of Hatoum's work to date. The show includes around 60 artworks, as well as a large-scale new installation made specifically for Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall.
Mona Hatoum (British/Palestinian) was born of Palestinian parents in Beirut in 1952, but has been based in London since 1975 when the outbreak of civil war in Lebanon prevented her returning home from a visit to London. After studying at the Byam Shaw School of Art and the Slade School of Art, she rapidly made a name for herself in the 1980s with a series of acclaimed performance and video works. Her work focuses on conflicted subjects such as violence, oppression, and voyeurism, often in relation to the human body. "Measures of Distance" (1988) consists of a series of grainy still images of Hatoum's mother in the shower. The text drawn from Hatoum's mother's letters from Beirut is written in Arabic above the images. Over the recording of a conversation between Hatoum and her mother, we hear Hatoum's voice reading English translations of the letters. The work examines identity and sexuality against a background of social unrest, exile, and transplantation. In contrast to this installation, where the mother's body as an individual is presented, the viewer of "Testimony" (1995-2002) is confronted by a close-up of an unidentified scrotum.
In the early 90s, Hatoum turned to expansive installations and objects that elicit in the viewer contradictory feelings such as fascination and fear, desire and disgust. The body is still present, even if it is now intimated or alluded to rather than portrayed, one example being "Umbilicus" (2003) where a chain of buttons coiled like an umbilical cord comes out from a stool. Other examples are works in which Hatoum weaves human hair, applies pubic hair to a chair, or uses her own blood on handmade paper. Her art is located on the border between reality and illusion, where recognizable everyday objects are distorted and transformed into unpleasant and sometimes physically dangerous objects. Rubber crutches, a carpet of pins, and electrified kitchen utensils are a few examples of HatoumÕs unique body of work. Hatoum herself discusses the multi-faceted nature of her work as follows: "You first experience an artwork physically. I like the work to operate on both sensual and intellectual levels. Meanings, connotations, and associations come after the initial physical experience as your imagination, intellect, psyche are fired off by what you've seen."
Mona Hatoum has exhibited widely in Europe, USA, and Canada. In 1995, she was nominated for the Turner Prize for her exhibitions at Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (1994) and at White Cube in London (1995). She was included in the Italian Pavilion at the Venice Biennial that same year. The Swedish public knows Hatoum as a IASPIS resident (2001 and 2002) and through an exhibition at Uppsala konstmuseum in the fall of 2003 that focused mainly on her video work and photography. Earlier this year, Hatoum became the first visual artist to receive Copenhagen University's Sonning Prize and this fall she will be awarded the Swiss Roswitha Haftmann Prize in Zurich.
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CONTENTS:
Being involved essay by Ursula Panhans-Bühler. The Body and the World essay by Volker Adolphs. Epiphanies of the Everyday - Materiality and Meaning in Mona Hatoum's work essay by Nina Zimmer. Notes on Hair essay by Richard Julin and Elisabeth Millqvist. Artist at Work - An Annotated Catalogue Raisonné of the Performances by Christophe Heinrich.
Exhibition catalogueISBN 3-7757-1444-8 144 pages, color, illustrated, hard cover. Texts in English/German. Published 2004 by Hatje Cantz Publishers. Price: 300 SEK (approx. 30 EUR)
Foreword
The work of Mona Hatoum encourages an active engagement on the part of the viewer and invites a simultaneous and layered viewing experience: an intense physical reaction and, subsequently, an unravelling.
Life on the move, away from her home country, has made Mona Hatoum sensitive to issues of power relationships and questions of identity. She was born in Lebanon in 1952, the daughter of Palestinian parents and has been living in London since 1975. In her sculpture, video and installation work she repeatedly addresses the vulnerability of the individual in relation to the violence inherent in institutional power structures. Her primary point of reference is the human body, sometimes using her own body - not only in her performances, but also in her video works and installations.
The relationship between artist and viewer is constantly the subject of reflection in Hatoum's works. This theme is already present in her early performances, which are the focus of particular attention in this publication. Hatoum's performances, especially between 1980 and 1988, exhibit a wide repertory of ideas and forms which act as a precursor to her later sculptures and installations. We gradually follow the direction of the path from the ephemeral aspect of the performance work to video and permanent installations. This book is the first to offer a comprehensive catalogue of her performance work.
Since the early 1990s Hatoum has been producing large installations which succeed in arousing in the viewer contradictory feelings of attraction and repulsion, fear and fascination. "Light Sentence", "Corps étranger", "Homebound" are some of her most ambitious installations and are included in this exhibition. These key works combine performative and interactive approaches of her early years with a formal language that derives its vocabulary from minimalist sculpture and conceptual art, which is at the same time charged with personal and political content.
Mona Hatoum commits herself totally and literally to her art. Her choice of particular materials is arrived at in relation to the content, and the range of materials she uses would appear to be completely inexhaustible: steel and plastic, textiles and soap, electricity and magnetism, found household utensils and disposable items, glass and rubber... Hatoum thus fashions an artistic language in which familiar everyday commodities are transformed into strange and threatening devices. This survey exhibition of Hatoum's work takes this diversity into account. (...)
Excerpt from the exhibition catalogue foreword by: Uwe M. Schneede, Christoph Heinrich (Hamburger Kunsthalle), Dieter Ronte, Volker Adolphs (Kunstmuseum Bonn) and David Neuman, Richard Julin (Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall).
"Undercurrent", 2004
Electric cable, light bulbs, computerised dimmer unit
diameter 950 cm
"Balançoires en fer", 1999
mild steel
206 x 137 x 50 cm
"Blood Drawing", 2003
handmade paper, blood
31,5 x 25,5 cm
"Cage-à-deux", 2002
mild steel, painted MDF
201,5 x 315 x 199,5 cm
"Chain", 1999
leather gloves, nylon thread, wood, steel
100,3 x 25,4 cm variable height
"Divan Bed", 1996
steel tread plates
60 x 192 x 77 cm
"Do it, home version", 1996
inkjet and pencil on paper
29,5 x 21 cm
"Don't smile, you're on camera!", 1980
black & white video, sound
11,15 min.
"Doormat II", 2000-2001
stainless steel, nickel-plated pins, glue, canvas
2,5 x 71 x 40,5 cm
"Exodus", 2001
cardboard, metal, human hair, wax
two parts 49,6 cm x 75,5 cm x 80 cm
"Grater Divide", 2002
mild steel
204 x 3,5 cm, variable width
"Hair Drawing", 2003
handmade paper, human hair
25,5 x 31,5 cm
"Hair Drawing", 2003
handmade paper, human hair
34,5 x 41,5 cm
"Hand Made Paper", 2003
handmade paper
61 x 51,5 cm
"Hearing Voices (why me?)", 1994
four etched glass panels
each 28 x 33 cm
"Home", 1999
wood, galvanized steel, stainless steel, electric wire, computerized dimmer unit, amplifier, speakers
Table dimensions: 77 x 198 x 73,5 cm
"Horizon", 1998-1999
plastic, aluminium strip, paint
6,5 x 1,5 cm variable length
"Incommunicado", 1993
mild steel, wire
127 x 49,5 x 95,5 cm
"Jardin public", 1993
painted wrought iron, wax, pubic hair
82,4 x 39,5 x 49 cm
"Keffieh", 1993-1999
human hair, cotton fabric
120 x 120 cm
"Marbles Carpet", 1995
glass marbles
variable dimension
"No Way", 1996
stainless steel
6 x 41 x 13 cm
"No Way III", 1996
stainless steel
10 x 25 x 29 cm
"+ and -", 1994
wood, sand, stainless steel, electric motor
8 x 30 x 30 cm
"Present Tense", 1996
soap, glass beads
4,5 x 299 x 241 cm
"Quarters", 1996
mild steel
four units, each: 275,5 x 80,8 x 183 cm, overall installation: 275,5 x 517 x 517 cm
"Roadworks", 1985
(documentation of performance May 21st 1985, Brixton, London)
colour video, sound
6,45 min.
"Routes", 2003
pen and ink on printed maps
variable dimensions
"Set in Stone", 2002
engraved marble, hemp, oak shelf
24 x 65 x 20 cm
Edition Schellmann, Munich
"Skin, nail and hair", 2003
handmade paper, human hair, skin, nails
29,5 x 23,5 cm
"T 4 2", 1993-1998
fine stoneware
5,4 x 24,45 x 13,97 cm
"Testimony", 1995-2002
Video installation
diameter 50 cm, 2,37 min. (loop)
"Umbilicus", 2003
metal, plastic, nylon thread
46 x 162 x 33 cm
"Untitled (brain)", 2003
handmade paper
25,5 x 31,5 cm
"Untitled (chinese colander)", 1996
Japanese wax paper
40,6 x 51 cm
"Untitled (crutches)", 1991-2001
rubber, variable dimensions
"Untitled (flat colander)", 1996
Japanese wax paper
40,6 x 53,3 cm
"Untitled (grater)", 1996
Japanese wax paper
27 x 40 cm
"Untitled (grey hair grid with knots)", 2001
human grey hair, hair spray, tracing paper
35 x 27 cm
"Untitled (hair grid with knots)", 2001
human hair, hair spray, tracing paper
35 x 27 cm
"Untitled (large shaker colander)", 1996
Japanese wax paper
54,6 x 68,6 cm
"Untitled (milk strainer)", 1996
Japanese wax paper
27,3 x 40 cm
"Untitled (wheelchair II)", 1999
stainless steel, rubber
94,5 x 48,5 x 63,5 cm
"Van Gogh's Back", 1995
C-Print
50 x 38 cm
"Vicious Circle", 1999
glass bottles
8 cm x 176 cm diameter
"You are still here", 1994
etched mirrored glass, metal fixtures
38 x 29,2 x 0,5 cm
"Don't smile, you're on camera!", 1980
documentation of performance, ink and pencil on paper
82 x 90 cm
"Matters of Gravity", 1987
documentation of performance, pencil, ink, pen, correction fluid on paper
65 x 55 cm
"Position: Suspended", 1986
documentation of performance, ink, pencil, correction fluid
81 x 50 cm
"Under Siege", 1982
documentation of performance, ink, gouache, pencil, pen, correction fluid, adhesive tape, photo collage
77 x 67 cm
"Unemployed", 1986
documentation of performance, typewriter ink, gouache
58 x 50 cm
"So much I want to say", 1983
black & white video with sound
A Western Front Video Production, Vancouver
"Measures of Distance", 1988
colour video with sound
A Western Front Video Production, Vancouver
"Changing Parts", 1984
black & white video, sound
A Western Front Video Production, Vancouver
"Undercurrent", 2004. In background: "Quarters", 1996 |
Installation view Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall |
From left: "Horizon", 1998-99, "Divan Bed", 1996, "Grater Divide", 2002 |
From left: "Marbles Carpet", 1995, "Grater Divide", 2002, "Japanese wax paper rubbings", 1996 |
Installation view Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall |
Installation view Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall |
"No Way III", 1996 |
"Keffieh", 1993-1999 |
"Cage-à-deux", 2002 |
"Untitled (crutches)", 1991-2001 |
Mona Hatoum, 2004. |
Magasin 3 audio guide
duration 11 mins, in English
© Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, 2006
Download the programme and listen to the artist Fabice Gygi talk about his artistry and works. Fabrice Gygi guides us round the exhibition at Magasin 3, and talks about his works. He mentions "Tente Bar" (1997) and "Sound system sur chariot" (1997), then he moves on to "Local de vote" (2001), "Airbag Generation Yellow" (2001), "Cross Blocks" (2001), "Mine" (2003) and "Plafonnier" (2003), "Vigie" (2002,), "Gentleman's Agreement" - a performance (2002) and finally, his new works "Aquarium" and "Chèvre", created for the exhibition at Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall.
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