Interior Landscape 2008

Mona Hatoum made this interior landscape with what looks like found objects, carefully chosen and placed. The rusted metal frame of the bed is the main event, casting web-like shadows. I can imagine Hatoum in the studio, circling the space like a hawk, considering how to arrange the ensemble. The bare bones of the bed, a simple side table, a lone pillow, a coat rack – each speaks volumes. It's like a stage set, waiting for a play that never starts, or maybe a poem. It makes me think about the poetics of Arte Povera, and the radical vulnerability of Louise Bourgeois’s Cells. There is something stark and uninviting about this scene, yet the arrangement of the objects has a tender quality, almost as if each is protecting the other. Ultimately, the artwork feels like an invitation to contemplate the world within a world, a landscape of the mind.