DANGEROUS BEAUTY
Peril and playfulness coexist in Mona Hatoum’s visceral creations
Why Mona Hatoum has been shortlisted for this year’s Hepworth Prize for Sculpture
‘Ido not have a prescribed set of rules for my work,’ says the London-based Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum, who has spent almost four decades experimenting with a vast range of materials in her captivating, sometimes unsettling installation pieces. ‘The process is often the result of accidental encounters – I go with whatever attracts me at any particular moment.’ Whether she is harnessing the power of electric currents or magnetic force fields, her creations pulsate with life, energy and an ever-present sense of danger.
Hatoum is one of five artists – the others being Michael Dean, Phillip Lai, Magali Reus and Cerith Wyn Evans – to be shortlisted for this year’s Hepworth Prize for Sculpture. The pieces she is showing in the group exhibition are characteristically enigmatic: a set of jet-black glass marbles are contained within a circle on the floor, their perfect composition belying the chaotic implications of the installation’s title, Turbulence (Black), while colourful glass orbs housed in a medicine cabinet are subtly reminiscent of hand grenades.
Hatoum’s art has often been read in the context of the upheavals she experienced during her youth: born in Beirut, she was forced into exile in London following the outbreak of civil war in Lebanon in 1975. In fact, the stories she tells are universal in their significance, as the red neon lines that light up the entire surface of her Hot Spot globe so powerfully symbolise. ‘The idea is that hot spots, or spots of conflict, are not restricted to contested borders – the threat of war is everywhere,’ she says. Often, intimations of menace arise from Hatoum’s choice of material, as in the case of her latest globe design, Orbital, whose steel framework is punctuated by clumps of rubble recalling the remnants of a demolished building.
‘I like to create work with a strong material and visual presence that encourages a physical engagement,’ says Hatoum. At the Hepworth Wakefield, a new generation of viewers will interact with her tactile, thought-provoking art.
‘The Hepworth Prize for Sculpture’ exhibition is at the Hepworth Wakefield (www.hepworthwakefield.org) until 20 January 2019.