Untitled (Wheelchair) 1998

Curator: Mona Hatoum's "Untitled (Wheelchair)" presents us with a chillingly sterile object. The cold, stainless steel construction immediately strikes me as rather severe. Editor: Yes, the unyielding materiality definitely amplifies a feeling of confinement, doesn't it? Hatoum, a Palestinian artist, often addresses themes of displacement and the body, and here, she seems to strip away any sense of comfort or aid typically associated with a wheelchair. Curator: Notice how the simplified, almost diagrammatic structure reduces the wheelchair to its most fundamental elements. It's as if we're presented with the idea of mobility rather than actual support. Editor: Exactly. By rendering it in this cold, hard material, Hatoum seems to be making a statement about institutional control and the medicalization of bodies, especially those deemed "other." Curator: The geometric precision and starkness are undeniably powerful rhetorical devices. Editor: It's a potent reminder of the power dynamics inherent in how society treats disability and difference. Curator: I am captivated by its formal austerity. Editor: I see a challenge to normative perspectives.