This exhibition is the second in a series of three, where contemporary artists engage with the work of Alberto Giacometti. Titled Encounters, they are at the Barbican’s new gallery on level 2.
I wrote about the first one in an earlier post which featured Huma Bhabha. This time it is the turn of British-Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum. Her practice, like Giacometti’s, is concerned with, as it says in the handout: “distilling the psychological and emotional aftereffects of violence into sculptural forms”. While he works with figuration, she alludes to the body, rarely showing it directly.
I’ve let the images of Hatoum’s work speak for themselves as many refer to what is left after a particular moment has passed.
Terracotta Tile from 2003 shows dog prints, perhaps of an encounter between two animals.
A collection of small objects from both artists are displayed in a vitrine.
In this very enlarged photo, nail clippings are arranged to resemble a tiny ribcage.
I first came across Interior Landscape at Tate Modern. Everything in it refers to Palestine, Hatoum’s ancestral home and a place of continued exile.
The outline of a historical map of Palestine is embroidered on a pillow using human hair.
This piece unusually combines The Nose by Giacometti trapped within Hatoum’s Cube.
