Description

Mona Hatoum was born in Beirut, Lebanon. The outbreak of the war in 1975 caught her abroad, in London, where she decided to stay. She enrolled in the Byam Shaw School of Art and UCL Slade School of Fine Art. Her works tell the story of the individual experience of the self and its connection to society. Hatoum is considered a feminist artist who works with various media from performance to video and installation. The core of her artistic expression originates in the alienating feeling of war induced exile. The artist also wants the viewer to experience her works first physically and, only then, intellectually and through the senses, until all these levels finally merge in the unconscious. The artist was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1995, had exhibitions in Tate Britain in London and was also included in Documenta 11 in 2002. Over My Dead Body is a photography of the artist herself who is fearlessly looking at the little soldier walking on her nose. The text and image together are powerful and leave no doubt to the viewer about the message. Mona Hatoum brilliantly brings together personal and social narratives in her artworks which often speak for themselves.