Entry
Free
Dates
Fri 7 Feb–Mon 21 Apr 2025
Hours
Tue-Sun
10am-5pm
and bank holidays
Location
Sunley Gallery
This steel globe, approximately the size of a person’s height and arm span, tilts at the same angle as the earth with its continents traced in red neon. The cage-like structure and fierce glow present our world as a universal danger zone, powerfully evoking global conflicts, border tensions, and the climate emergency.
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Mona Hatoum’s work contends with complex issues of displacement, marginalisation, and systems of control. Whether through sculpture, installation, or performance, Hatoum balances the specific and the general to draw out cultural and political contexts that carry much wider, universal concerns.
‘A world continually caught up in conflict and unrest’
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Mona Hatoum, Hot Spot, 2006. The David and Indrė Roberts Collection © Mona Hatoum Photo © Above Ground Studio (Matt Greenwood) -
Mona Hatoum, Hot Spot III 2009 © Mona Hatoum. Courtesy the artist and MdbK Leipzig. Photo: dotgain.info -
Mona Hatoum, Hot Spot 2013. Mona Hatoum, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, 7.10.2016 - 26.2.2017. Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Pirje Mykkänen
Throughout her career, Hatoum has explored themes of instability through the image of the world map. This steel globe tilts at 23.5 degrees, matching Earth’s actual axis and its continents buzz with an intense, seemingly dangerous energy. The title Hot Spot conveys multiple meanings: political and military conflict zones, geological hotspots, and global warming. Positioned here near rising sea levels, the cage-like structure and fierce glow of continents traced in red neon present a volatile, overheating world. Hatoum portrays the globe as one interconnected hot spot, powerfully evoking geopolitical conflicts, border tensions, and the climate emergency as issues that affect us all.
Hatoum was born in Beirut in 1952 to a Palestinian family. She has lived and worked in London since 1975.
Please do not touch or get too close to the neon sculpture.
Curated by Melissa Blanchflower, Senior Curator.
With thanks to Mona Hatoum and her studio and The David and Indrė Roberts Collection.
About Mona Hatoum
Mona Hatoum has worked in a diverse range of media, including performance, video, photography, sculpture, installation and works on paper.
Her work deals with issues of displacement, marginalisation, exclusion and systems of social and political control.
Recent solo exhibitions include a major survey organised by Centre Pompidou, Paris (2015) that toured to Tate Modern, London and KIASMA, Helsinki (2016) and a large US survey initiated by the Menil Collection, Houston (2017) that travelled to the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St Louis (2018). In September 2022, Hatoum had three solo exhibitions that took place simultaneously in Berlin: NeuerBerliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.), Georg Kolbe Museum and KINDL – Centre for Contemporary Art.
Hatoum has also participated in international group exhibitions, such as the Venice Biennale (1995 and 2005), Istanbul Biennial (1995 and 2011), Documenta, Kassel (2002 and 2017), Biennale of Sydney (2006), Sharjah Biennial (2007 and 2023) and Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (2013).
Hatoum was born in Beirut in 1952 to a Palestinian family and has lived and worked in London since 1975. She studied at the Byam Shaw School of Art, London (1975-1979) and Slade School of Fine Art, London (1979-1981).
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