Mona Hatoum: Measures of Entanglement

Mona Hatoum: Measures of Entanglement. ''As the first choice in a new series of creative endeavors with today's most prominent international contemporary artists, this show initiates a very powerful dialogue with Chinese audiences, creating debate around the notions of transient culture and otherness that also lie at the core of Chinese contemporary art today'' said Jerome Sans, UCCA's Director.

In Mona Hatoum's universe, familiar objects shift in scale and mutate until they take on a complex psychological charge that makes them appear both alluring and dangerous. A constellation of crystal spheres is arranged to form Web (2006), a net-like structure suspended from above in UCCA's nave that attracts the eye but mimics the shape of a spider's trap. Paravent and Dormiente (both 2008) are enlarged kitchen graters whose enormity transforms them into a room partition and a bed, respectively, but their sharp edges threaten to harm those who would dare to touch them.

The exhibition also features video works from earlier in the artist's career, including the deeply moving Measures of Distance (1988), which lyrically addresses Hatoum and her mother's separation after civil war erupted in Beirut in 1975; video documentation of the public performance Roadworks (1985); and a series of unique works on paper.

"Mona Hatoum's extraordinary ability to illuminate the uncanny dimension of our everyday lives cuts across cultural divides" says UCCA Curator David Spalding. "The simplicity of materials and the grace with which they are combined, coupled with the sometimes ominous associations they conjure, creates an ambivalence that activates the imagination''.

Mona Hatoum: Measures of Entanglement