Measures of Distance 1988
Measures of Distance 1988
VIDEOTAPE, 4:3, COLOUR, STEREO, 16 MINUTES, LEBANON/CANADA, ARABIC, ENGLISH / A WESTERN FRONT VIDEO PRODUCTION, VANCOUVER / PURCHASED 1996 WITH A SPECIAL ALLOCATION FROM THE QUEENSLAND GOVERNMENT. CELEBRATING THE QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY’S CENTENARY 1895–1995 / COLLECTION QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY
The sound of an animated conversation between women plays out in Measures of Distance while images of a naked woman, the artist’s mother, are overlaid with images of handwritten letters in Arabic script. In 1975, when Hatoum was on a short trip to London, war broke out in Lebanon and the young woman found she was unable to return home. Following a brief reunion in 1981, Hatoum reads aloud her mother’s letters in English, in which the older woman discusses her feelings and her desire to be involved in her daughter’s life and art. The intimacy revealed by the photographs, which the artist took of her mother in the shower, are countered by the veil of letters, which are vehicles to bring the faraway close. The work explores notions of exile as well as other forms of ‘proximity’ and ‘distance’.
Contact: Wed 7 Oct 12.30pm (with On Three Posters + Dangerous Supplement) and Sat 7 Nov 1.30pm (with Spelling Dystopia + Vatan + Duba + Zindan) / Cinema A
Phone: Mona HATOUM
b.1952 Beirut, Lebanon
Lives in Berlin, Germany and London, UK
