Research // Mona Hatoum

Mona Hatoum is a video artist and installation artist of Palestinian origin, who lives in London.Mona Hatoum explores a variety of different subject matter via different theoretical frameworks. Her work can be interpreted as a description of the body, as a commentary on politics, and on gender and difference as she explores the dangers and confines of the domestic world. Her work can also be interpreted through the concept of space as her sculpture and installation work depend on the viewer to inhabit the surrounding space to complete the effect. There are always multiple readings to her work. “I wanted it to appeal to your senses first maybe or to somehow affect you in a bodily way and then the sort of connotations and concepts that are behind that work can come out of that original physical experience.” The physical responses that Hatoum desired in order to provoke psychological and emotional responses ensures unique and individual reactions from different viewers.

Hatoum’s early work consisted largely of performance pieces that used a direct physical confrontation with an audience to make a political point. She used this technique as a means of making a direct statement using her own body; the performances often referenced her background and the political situation in Palestine. In her work, she addressed the vulnerability of the individual in relation to the violence inherent in institutional power structures. Her primary point of reference was the human body, sometimes using her own body. She says of her focus on the body: “I wanted to make I wanted it to appeal to your senses first maybe or to somehow affect you in a bodily way and then the sort of connotations and concepts that are behind that work can come out of that original physical experience. This is what I was aiming at in the work. I wanted it to be experienced through the body. In other words I want work to be both experienced sensually and intellectually rather than just one dimensionally if you like.” One of her first major pieces, Measures of Distance, explores the themes topics of her early art. “I made a conscious decision to delve into the personal – however complex, confused, and contradictory the material I was dealing with was… Once I made the work I found that it spoke of the complexities of exile, displacement, the sense of loss and separation caused by war. In other words, it contextualized the image, or this person, “my mother,” within a social-political context.”

Her work consists of confrontational issue-based performance work, fuelled by anger and a sense of urgency.
  

I was told to look at this artist as her work highlights conforming to social politics. I like how the pieces seem to be one thing but when you look into it the meaning becomes clearer. The swings (to me) symbolise that everybody is free to 'swing' as they please, but sooner or later you're going to crash into someone. The doc marten boots tied to the mans leg I believe symbolises that man is controlled and held back by his material possessions. This is all subjects I'm attempting to highlight in my own project.