Web

Mona Hatoum

 

a large-scale constellation of delicate, transparent glass spheres connected by steel wires to take the form of a spider's web. The seemingly precarious web, suspended overhead and extending almost across the entire space, looks both fascinating and ominous. Web can be seen as a net coming at you from above, announcing an oppressive, threatening confinement, but at the same time can be experienced as a ‘home’ or a place of safety. This reminds us that spiders spin their webs to catch and entangle their prey. For Hatoum, the web also symbolises the interconnectedness of things. The glass orbs sparkle like dewdrops on the web, which in a paradoxical way is both seductive, and terrifying. Web is a stark but poetic reminder of the physically and psychologically trapping ‘webs’ we have to navigate through in life. Hatoum has used the motif of the web, in various materials, throughout her oeuvre to explore themes of neglect, idleness, mobility and control.

 

 

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