in online exhibition 55 Years of Schellmann Art
Puzzled, 2009
From Wall Works
Six puzzle elements (MDF hardboard sandwiched between aluminum plates; mirror-polished front), 85 x 60 x 2.5 cm (33 x 24 x 1 in) each, on a white, gray, or black wall, mounted as a unit or displayed randomly. Limited to 15 installations, with a signed and numbered certificate.
In Mona Hatoum's large-scale edition Puzzled, the gaps between the individual fragments come into focus – they point to what is missing, what cannot be fully grasped. Themes such as loss, uprooting and being in-between run through Hatoum's oeuvre and are closely linked to her personal experience of exile. Born in Beirut to Palestinian parents, the artist found herself forced into exile and cut off from her family in Beirut when civil war suddenly broke out while she was on a trip to London in 1975. The reflective surfaces of the puzzle pieces also involve the viewer by fragmenting their own reflections and raising questions about identity, wholeness and the perception of space.
