Roadworks 1985

Curator: Mona Hatoum's stark photograph, "Roadworks," created in 1985, depicts a figure's feet, bare except for cords tethering them to heavy work boots. It’s a strikingly simple, almost confrontational image. Editor: My initial reaction is one of confinement. The high-contrast monochrome exaggerates the vulnerability of the bare feet against the clunky, imposing boots. It suggests a strange, burdened form of locomotion. Curator: It speaks volumes, doesn't it? Boots often symbolize labor, even violence. The cords create a direct connection, transforming the boots into an extension of the body, but one that restricts, perhaps even injures. Think of the ancient symbolic weight carried by feet, linking us to the earth, to our path. Editor: Exactly. The photograph implicates power dynamics, perhaps exploring themes of self-imposed limitations, or external control. The bare feet intimate the subject’s fragility and vulnerability in contrast with the potential aggression inherent in the worker's boot, immediately positioning this work inside debates around race and class struggle. Curator: Consider the symbolism of binding too. Binding traditions can represent spiritual vows or subjugation. Hatoum offers us the space to ponder the intended association between boots and the body through the material of those cords. Editor: Absolutely, that cord becomes the pivotal detail for me. There is also something almost comical in the awkward stance and visible effort—it could also relate to endurance, specifically the endurance required to persist through socio-political struggles. Curator: A sense of dark humor perhaps? I am interested in that impulse to tie or to bond with oneself or one’s immediate circumstances as a source of personal resilience. In a way, that cord represents personal volition even as the boots imply struggle. Editor: Yes, maybe resilience despite constraint. It’s a deeply compelling, thought-provoking work precisely because it uses a visually arresting paradox. It resists simple explanation. Curator: It reminds us how profoundly loaded seemingly mundane objects can become through symbolic association. Editor: Indeed, Hatoum makes us acutely aware of the silent languages present in familiar objects. A loaded image, certainly.