The Cunard Building

Mona Hatoum’s work interrogates the politics embedded in even the most mundane of objects, and the politics of body. By means of sculpture, installation and video, the artist reveals the subtext (the undercurrent meaning, to paraphrase one of her titles) ingrained in the form and usage of utensils and everyday materials. Displacement, variations in scale and size, as well as unorthodox associations are amongst the strategies that the artist uses to remind the viewer that each object is culturally, socially and politically charged. In a sense, Hatoum suggests that nothing and no one is innocent.

A selection of recent works, and some which have never been seen in the UK, creates a thread that helps the audience to navigate several spaces of the Cunard Building and other sites. Along this journey, the viewer will be confronted by unusual mappings of the world and, most importantly, ideas of cultural dominance and political ignorance.