Traffic

Mona Hatoum was born in Beirut to Palestinian parents exiled from Haifa. In 1975, at the age of twenty-three, Hatoum herself became an exile, when she was stranded in England by the war in Lebanon. An exploration of cultural displacement, the homeland, exile, migration, the foreigner, borders and language is consequently central to Hatoum’s artistic practice. As she explained: ‘being the daughter of displaced people makes home feel insecure and unsafe. So you develop an ambiguous relationship both to home and the idea of homeland’.

A signature example of Hatoum’s work, Traffic speaks to these experiences. The artist typically draws on the everyday, using recognisable and familiar objects, which she then transforms into unsettling sculptures. The pair of worn suitcases tethered together by strands of human hair becomes a metaphor for the body and illicit movement across borders.

Leigh Robb, Curator of Contemporary Art