Hot Spot

Overview

Hatoum’s work is an outstanding example of the interweaving of ethical, political and aesthetic issues, whose beauty lies in the wit, economy, risk-taking and even mischief-making with which these issues are conflated...
In Hatoum’s deceptively simple works, defiance cannot easily be separated from vulnerability, order from chaos, beauty from revulsion, the brain from the body, the self from the other, affirmation from negation, form from content, light from dark.
Guy Brett “Itinerary” in Mona Hatoum, Contemporary Artists Series, London: Phaidon Press (1997)

I have recently created two works, both depicting a world map, that relate to environmental issues, in particular the concern over global warming.

Hot Spot (2006) is a cage-like steel globe, approximately the size of a person’s height and arm span, which tilts at the same angle as the earth. Using delicate red neon to outline the contours of the continents on its surface, the work buzzes with an intense energy, bathing its surroundings in a luminescent red glow. It is both mesmerising and seemingly dangerous. On the one hand it suggests that the whole world is a political hot spot caught up in conflict and unrest; it also points to global warming, an impending concern.

The other map is a work on paper entitled Projection (2006) using the new ‘Peters’ projection, a more egalitarian map, as it shows all areas in true proportion and corrects the distortions of the traditional maps with their dominant northerly perspective. It is a white on white work that uses cotton and abaca to create a positive–negative reversal where the continents appear as submerged recesses, as if they have been etched or eroded. The title “Projection” was chosen to imply projecting or looking into the future. This again can be seen as a portrayal of an apocalyptic view of the world.


This project was part of Sharjah Biennial 8.