Artist Mona Hatoum contrasts safety with danger at first exhibition in Seoul

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Artist Mona Hatoum contrasts safety with danger at first exhibition in Seoul

Published: 05 Mar. 2025, 18:22 Updated: 05 Mar. 2025, 18:24

SHIN MIN-HEE
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

British Palestinian multimedia artist Mona Hatoum speaks during a press preview for her first solo exhibition in Korea at the White Cube art gallery in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, on March 5. [SHIN MIN-HEE]

Contrary to the widely held view that a wheelchair’s purpose is to offer mobility and support to the disabled, British Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum claims something different — that it could be a hazardous object.

For her 1999 installation “Untitled (wheelchair II),” she modified a stainless steel wheelchair, making it lean forward and changing its handles to serrated knives. Hatoum said she imagined a scenario in which the user would start feeling resentment instead of gratitude toward the person pushing the chair around.

"Untitled (wheelchair II)" (1999) by Mona Hatoum [SHIN MIN-HEE]

The piece represents the 73-year-old multimedia artist’s skepticism of stability and safety in the world, and was based on the saying, “biting the hand that feeds you.”

Hatoum’s first solo exhibition in Korea is being held at the White Cube art gallery in Gangnam District, southern Seoul.

The exhibition is comprised of 20 works, including ones that are revealed for the first time, spanning the past 20 years of Hatoum’s oeuvre. The artist has shown a fascination with everyday objects and the human body — such as toilet paper and hair — and altered them to address ironic situations that expand to themes of conflict, surveillance and displacement.

"Divide" by Mona Hatoum [WHITE CUBE]

One of Hatoum’s latest installations, “Divide,” is an example of contrasting the two concepts of safety and danger. Depicting a three-panel hospital ward screen, the fabric has instead been replaced with barbed wire.

Fence and grid structures are recurring motifs in Hatoum’s work. “It inevitably brings up associations of restricted movements through barricades or borders in war zones,” she said in a press preview at the gallery on Wednesday.

"Mirror" by Mona Hatoum [WHITE CUBE]

“Mirror,” an arrangement of steel bars hung on a wall with no reflective surface, as expected by the name, metaphorically encourages the audience to reflect on their state of mind, according to Hatoum, as the artist describes the installation as a “psychological construct.”

“I feel like in these troubled and polarized times, many people in power and oppressive regimes are creating divisions, discrimination and exclusion,” she said, citing immigration and minority issues. “So, in many ways, our lives are being more and more restricted and controlled as if we are in prison.”

"Still Life (medical cabinet) VI" by Mona Hatoum [WHITE CUBE]

"Hair Necklace (silver)" by Mona Hatoum [WHITE CUBE]

In another new piece, “Hair Necklace (silver),” she rolled up strands of her own silver hair, “of which I now have plenty,” she joked, to create a chunky ball necklace. She said it references her way of “elevating” the hair’s status from a simple material to jewelry. Hatoum has collected her hair and turned them into ornamental goods for the past three decades, with the first version being displayed at a Cartier shop window in Bordeaux, France, in 1995.

In other instances, she weaves hair into toilet paper or handmade paper to replace ink. Though the handmade paper she has used until now is made from cotton, it’s reminiscent of hanji, or traditional Korean mulberry paper. Hatoum said that she plans to take some home.

“I have an idea for them, which I can’t wait to try,” she said, teasing the material’s appearance in future works.

Hatoum’s solo exhibition continues until April 12. White Cube Seoul is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays. The exhibition is free.

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [[email protected]]