Mona Hatoum

Mona Hatoum is a Palestinian artist that creates art about the conflicts and contradictions of our world, the relationship between politics and the individual and the systems of control within society. I was mostly influenced by her creations of large scale household objects that are attractive in an odd way and portray the systems of control within society. Her artworks “Daybed” and “Paravent” are large scale sculptures of everyday kitchen objects that are humorously transformed  to objects that  pretend to offer comfort but, at closer inspection, they  turn out to be  life threatening traps. These two artworks inspired my artwork “Sold as Seen”. Moreover, I was attracted by the following quote of Mona Hatoum :

 

“I like to use Furniture in my work because it is about everyday life. Some of the objects are vaguely useful, but often they turn into uncanny objects. We usually expect furniture to be about giving support and comfort to the body. If these objects become either unstable or threatening, they become a reference to our fragility”

 

(Mona Hatoum, Knustmuseum St.Gallen Holzworth Publications 2014)