Mona Hatoum facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Mona Hatoum
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Mona Hatoum, 2021, during the closing of her exhibition at IVAM.
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| Born | 1952 (age 72–73) Beirut, Lebanon
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| Education | Beirut University College |
| Awards | Rolf Schock Prizes in Visual Arts (2008) Joan Miró Prize (2011) Praemium Imperiale (2019) Julio González Prize (2020) |
Mona Hatoum (Arabic: منى حاطوم; born 1952) is a British-Palestinian multimedia and installation artist. She lives and works in London.
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About Mona Hatoum's Life
Mona Hatoum was born in 1952 in Beirut, Lebanon. Her parents were from Palestine. Even though she was born in Lebanon, Mona could not get a Lebanese identity card. She does not see herself as Lebanese. As she grew up, her family did not want her to become an artist. But she kept drawing and illustrating her schoolwork.
Mona studied graphic design at Beirut University College for two years. After that, she started working at an advertising agency. She was not happy with the advertising work she did. In 1975, she visited London. While she was there, the Lebanese Civil War started. This meant Mona could not go back home. She had to stay in London.
She continued her art training in London. She studied at the Byam Shaw School of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art from 1975 to 1981. Since then, she has traveled a lot. She has created amazing art that explores human struggles. Her art looks at problems like political conflict and being an outsider.
Mona Hatoum's Art and Themes
Mona Hatoum explores many different topics in her art. Her work can show ideas about the human body. It can also be a comment on politics. She also looks at gender differences. Her art often explores the hidden dangers of everyday home life.
Her sculptures and installations also use the idea of space. Viewers need to be in the space around her art. This helps to complete the artwork's effect. Her art often has many meanings. Mona wants her art to make people feel things. This means each person will have a unique reaction.
Early Artworks and Performances
Mona Hatoum's first artworks were mostly performances. She used her own body to make strong political points. These performances often showed her background. They also talked about the political situation in Palestine. She showed how people can feel weak. This was often against powerful systems.
Measures of Distance (1988)
Measures of Distance was made in 1988. It came from her time as an artist in Vancouver. This video artwork shows Mona's early themes. These themes include family, being displaced, and female connections. The video is fifteen minutes long. It shows personal photos of Mona's mother.
Mona added letters from her mother over the photos. Her mother was living in Beirut during the civil war. Mona was living in London. The letters were written in Arabic. They tell the story of the video. They also show how hard it was to send letters during the war. Mona reads the letters aloud in both Arabic and English.
The video is about a short family reunion. This happened in Beirut in 1981. It mainly focuses on the mother-daughter bond. But it also mentions Mona's father. So, it explores the father-daughter and husband-wife relationships too.
The video's parts, like the letters, show how the war affected Mona's family. It explores how the war changed their relationships. It also shows how it changed Mona's own identity. The video is not a news report. It questions common ideas about people. It also stays hopeful. The letters are mostly positive. They only show sadness about the distance between mother and daughter.
Mona tries to show her reunion with her mother. She also shows when she took photos of her mother. Instead of showing the Israeli–Palestinian conflict directly, she shows its effects. She shows how the wars affected her family. Mona uses both English and Arabic. This helps connect with different audiences.
In this artwork, Mona gives her mother a voice. She also challenges common ideas about Arab women. The Tate Modern museum says this artwork shows how the mother can be herself. This happens through her daughter's art. It creates a strong bond between them. This bond is free from outside control.
Measures of Distance is one of Mona's few works that directly talks about her background. In other works, she likes to be more abstract. She leaves her art open for different ideas. Even though this work is less abstract, viewers still have to think about its meaning.
This video was shown at many film festivals. These included the London Film Festival and the Montreal Women's Film and Video Festival.
Grater Divide (2002)
Made in 2002, Grater Divide changes an everyday kitchen object. It turns a common grater into a large room divider. This artwork is about 80 inches tall. It hints at feelings of being separated. This could be like the walls built in Palestinian areas.
Hot Spot III (2009)
Hot Spot III, made in 2009, is a large art installation. It shows the globe tilted like the Earth. It is about as tall as a person. The name connects to the idea of political problems. It suggests that conflict in one place can affect the whole world.
The globe is made of steel, like a cage. It glows a bright red light. This makes it look like the world is on fire. The light flickers quickly. It creates an exciting environment that draws people in. The red light also makes people feel a sense of danger. Mona questions if simple art forms can truly show the world's problems.
Later Artworks and Objects
In the late 1980s, Mona Hatoum stopped doing performances. She felt they were too direct. Instead, she started making installations and objects. She used ideas from her student days at the Slade School of Fine Art. From then on, she wanted viewers to be part of the art. She wanted them to experience it without her being the main focus.
Since the 1990s, her art has changed. It moved from making statements to asking questions. Viewers now have to think more. Sculptures and installations replaced performances. These new works needed viewers to interact with them mentally and physically. Her art also started to be made for specific places. Examples include the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston.
One important artwork showing this change is Keffieh (1993–1999). This is a scarf woven from human hair. It mixes ideas of femininity and religion.
In the late 1980s, she also began to focus on common household items. These included kitchen tools and furniture. T42 (1993–98) is an example. It is a pair of teacups joined together at the rim.
The Body in Art
Many of Mona Hatoum's early works focused on the human body. The body was a center for ideas about politics and feminism. This made viewers feel a strong, direct reaction. One of her pieces is a 1994 video installation called Corps etranger. This artwork showed video images of the inside of her body.
Corps etranger was made for the Centre Georges Pompidou. It has a partly closed, round structure. Viewers are asked to go inside. They stand on a round glass plate. Close-up video images of the artist's body parts are shown. The artist invites the viewer to "walk around" inside her body. This is done through video taken with special cameras. The sound is a recording of a heartbeat and body movements.
Mona Hatoum's art explores ideas about the 'abjection'. This idea was introduced by a thinker named Julia Kristeva. It also looks at the strange or unsettling feeling in her works. She uses things like body hair to create this feeling.
Art and Politics
The strange feelings in Mona's art can be linked to politics. When something feels unsettling, it can make us think about power. It can also make us think about bigger political issues. Her art does not always refer to big political events. Instead, it often points to a hidden threat. This threat can only be dealt with by individuals.
Mona Hatoum has connected her art to other political movements. This includes the struggle for black rights. In a 1997 interview, Mona said it was important to think about the black struggle as a total political fight. She said there are common forces that treat people unfairly. She also said that "blackness" in this context is not about skin color. It is about taking a political stand.
Mona Hatoum's Exhibitions
Mona Hatoum's art was shown in a special exhibition. This was at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston in 2015. In May 2016, the Tate Modern held a big show. It explored 35 years of Mona's work in Britain. This included her early performances and videos. It also showed her sculptures and large installations.
The Menil Collection in Houston, Texas, also had a solo exhibition. It was called "Mona Hatoum: Terra Infirma." It was open from October 2017 to February 2018. This exhibition then moved to the Pulitzer Arts Foundation. It was shown there from April to August 2018.
In March 2018, Mona Hatoum was chosen for the Hepworth Prize for Sculpture. In January 2020, she was part of an exhibit called Visibilities: Intrepid Women of Artpace. Also in 2020, she won the Julio González award. This led to a solo exhibition at Institut Valencià d'Art Modern in 2021.
Awards and Recognition
- 2008 – Rolf Schock Prize in Visual Arts
- 2011 – Joan Miró Prize, Fundació Joan Miró
- 2017 – 10th Hiroshima Art Prize, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima
- 2018 – Whitechapel Gallery Art Icon
- 2019 – Praemium Imperiale for sculpture. This award recognized her lifetime achievements in art.
- 2021 – Julio González Price 2020
See also
In Spanish: Mona Hatoum para niños
- Palestinian art
