Mona Hatoum (1952– ) is a sculptor and installation
and performance artist who was born in Beirut into
an exiled Palestinian family. As exiles, they were not
able to obtain Lebanese identity cards, and so, despite
growing up in Beirut, Hatoum always felt like an
outsider. During a brief visit to London in 1975, civil
war broke out in Lebanon, and she became stranded.
Separated from her family, Hatoum continued her
studies in London, attending first the Byam Shaw
School of Art and later the Slade School of Art (1975–
81). During this time she started to create videos and performances that focused
on the body as a medium for making political statements about social discord and
division. Her first successful work was a video called Measures of Distance (1988)
featuring photographs of Hatoum’s mother in the shower, overlaid with Arabic writing
representing the mother’s letters from Beirut to her daughter in London, which
were also read aloud and recorded on the soundtrack by the artist. The piece shows
the intimacy between mother and daughter, but also speaks of exile, displacement,
separation and loss as a result of war.