Mona Hatoum
Entrails Carpet, 1995
Entrails transforms an age-old textile form -- the carpet -- with
unsettling effect. Hatoum's carpets extend a visual invitation to walk or lie
down, but the idea of actual contact with the sticky rubber
is repellent. The body is often present in Hatoum's work, whether represented
or suggested. Entrails evokes our bodily existence at "gut level,"
offering a cautionary tale about finding false comfort in something that seems
familiar. Originating, as the artist says, from "a place of not belonging,"
her work refuses to offer a sage haven for peaceful contemplation. Instead,
deceptively elegant, mutely aggressive, it demands that we experience the
often uncomfortable realities and paradoxes that define our existence.
Mona Hatoum, Entrails Carpet, 1995.
Silicone Rubber, 2 1/2 x 117 x 80". Edition of three.
Created in collaboration with the Fabric Workshop and Museum.
Photo: Graydon Wood.
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