Hair Mesh 2013

Mona Hatoum made this piece, 'Hair Mesh' from, well, hair, woven into a grid; it's like a minimalist textile experiment. What strikes me is the process of making, the sheer amount of labor involved in aligning those strands of hair. There’s something about the grid that organizes the organic matter, like a rational system attempting to contain something unruly, or intensely personal. It’s almost like a meditation on control and the body. Look at the way the light filters through. It’s delicate, like a ghostly curtain. The texture invites you in close, yet the material – hair – is slightly unsettling. That juxtaposition is key. It reminds me a bit of Eva Hesse, in the way she played with industrial materials to evoke a sense of vulnerability. Hatoum, like Hesse, is turning something familiar into something strange. In this way, 'Hair Mesh' embraces the push and pull between beauty and discomfort.