I first encountered Mona Hatoum’s work in the Ways of Seeing exhibition in its third iteration at the NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery, curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath in Fall 2018. The curators of the exhibition were inspired by John Berger’s 1972 television series and book with the same name. As Student Assistant and Docent at the NYUAD Art Gallery, I was deeply committed to learning about the artworks. I was especially drawn to Hatoum’s pieces because of the way she transformed the simplicity and humbleness of everyday life into art. "Hair Necklace (wood)" of 2013 consists of a necklace made from the artist’s own hair, which she collected over time and displayed on a wooden bust. "No Way IV" of 2013 is an upside-down colander, nails bolted into its holes, rendering the tool useless. By repurposing and placing them in the context of a museum, Hatoum imbues simple objects, like human hair and kitchen utensils, with powerful reflections on everyday struggles.

Born to Palestinian parents in exile, Hatoum repeatedly brings up the topic of displacement in her work. Despite being born in Lebanon, she could not obtain a Lebanese identity card. This provoked a feeling of lack of belonging and integration into the local community. She expresses feeling out of place not only because of her background, but also because her desire to create art from a young age went unsupported. This emotional tension motivated her to find a way out of the internal conflict caused by her political situation.

Hatoum went to London in 1975 in what was meant to be a brief visit, but she ended up staying after seeking asylum as the Lebanese Civil War broke out. She then trained at the Byam Shaw School of Art and The UCL Slade School of Fine Art. After discovering performance art in her new environment, she started to use it as a way to express her growing interest for political and social issues. Shortly after, she began navigating different media, ranging from installation to sculpture. Hatoum gained her reputation in the art world by questioning minimalism and surrealism as means of artistic expression and by addressing issues of gender, race and war, among others.

The two artworks exhibited at the Ways of Seeing exhibition fascinated me with their ability to seem like ordinary objects from a distance, only to reveal a deeper meaning upon closer inspection. With "Hair Necklace (wood)", Hatoum emphasizes the relationship between body and identity with the use of collected body hair. By creating a necklace out of hair and displaying it as if in a jewellery store, the artist turns a part of us that we shed and throw away, into an accessory to be worn. I find the work captivating as it draws on the idea of the body as a commodity. By adorning ourselves in accessories, we are fetishizing ourselves. It is almost as if this fragmentation and reconstruction of a body part in the form of a necklace is a reference to the fragmentation of identity as a result of exile and displacement.

Hatoum adopts a similar process of recontextualization in "No Way IV" by removing the colander from its usual context of the kitchen, and sealing the holes to rid the object of its purpose of draining liquids from food items. As if a rejection of an imposed domesticated life and at the same time a threat to personal safety, the colander now carries both its past use as a household item and its current look as a weapon-like tool. An impractical colander can refer to societal expectations as much as to the altered tool’s threatening relation to the body.

Hatoum manages to turn her personal experiences as a woman and a product of displacement into universal themes from which any viewer can extract meaning in relation to their own bodies and identities. The artist often reiterates the audience’s freedom to interpret meaning during interviews. Whereas some viewers may relate to the Hatoum’s political struggle, others make personal references to their bodily experiences. Looking at her artwork, I was able to identify with the way Hatoum deconstructs preconceived notions of identity with simple, often disregarded everyday objects.