Kapan

Born into a Palestinian family exiled to Lebanon, Mona Hatoum spent her childhood and early youth in the cosmopolitan environment of the city of Beirut. In 1975, during a short visit to London, she was prevented from returning home by the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War and decided to pursue her art education in England. Hatoum gained recognition in the mid-1980s for her performance and video work that focused strongly on the body. In the 1990s, her works’ focus shifted towards large-scale installations and sculptures. Drawing inspiration from her personal experience, Hatoum’s works touch on themes such as displacement, marginalisation and exclusion. Characterised by the use of unexpected formal and visual elements, these works feature paradoxical layers of meaning to invite contemplation on preconceived dichotomies. Hatoum’s practice is imbued with subtle implications that aim to engage the physical and mental faculties of viewers rather than presenting rigid propositions and well-rounded narratives.

Produced in 2012 for her solo exhibition "You Are Still Here" curated by Emre Baykal at Arter, "Kapan" denotes both Hatoum’s unfettered interest in issues related to the body and her fascination in juxtaposing diverse materials of opposing natures. The work consists of a group of five cage-like structures made of steel rods, each slightly different in size, yet all scaled roughly to an average human height. Vertically installed, their upright positions slightly tilted as if about to topple, these modules are made of steel reinforcing bars that are commonly found on construction sites and unfinished buildings. However, rather than acting as a reinforcing system, these objects operate more as uncanny structures of entrapment. Their rigid grid pattern encapsulates fragile and amorphous red glass forms; it is as if some strange creatures or unspecified body parts were trapped inside of a bodily shell, trying in vain to break out. Juxtaposing a solid geometry with organic forms – the solid and the fragile – almost embedded into each other, the work subtly resonates with the vulnerability of the human body – threatened, captured and controlled by power structures – as well as one’s own sense of inner exile.