Mona Hatoum: Terra Infirma
Yale University Press
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Dislocation, borders, political oppression are themes that are omnipresent and reverberate through Mona Hatoum’s oeuvre, which now spans over four decades.
In recent years, the illumination of the implications and contradictions of globalization has become part of her approach via either depicting or referencing mundane everyday household objects and altering or combining them in unusual manners with each other to reflect emotions such as alienation, instability and fear.
Terra Infirma is focused on Mona Hatoum’s solo exhibitions with mainly minimalist sculptures and installations that blur the line between reality and surrealism with the intent to subvert the familiar.
Highlighting the divide between technological advancement and regressions through conflicts and war, Hatoum explores gender issues, feminism and politics.
The copiously illustrated tome contextualizes Hatoum’s ominous work with essays that frame her significance in the canon of the arts as well imaginative interpretations which shed light on aspects that might only meet the eye upon further inspection from different angles.
An ode on book form to an artist that thrives on paradoxes and seems to enjoy frightening and entertaining her audience in equal measures with the aim to attack the barriers between art and life, self and structure, sense of belonging and nomadic uprootedness – the terra infirma we all dwell on.
