T42

This artwork featured in The Precious Clay (2019). 

One of the most admired traits of Mona Hatoum’s work is how she generates multiple, and always affecting, readings by simple transformative gestures. With T42, the conjoining of the cups brings to mind the civility associated with tea drinking along with an image of the forced collaboration involved in sharing a vessel. In political terms, it can be construed as a metaphor of cooperation and egalitarianism, but also its opposite: a possible battle over limited resources, a tug-of-war in which the contents of the vessel go to the victor. Another perception altogether may be that of a couple very much in love and in tune, sharing a warm drink, while locked in an intimate embrace.

Image: Mona Hatoum, T42, gold trimmed fine stoneware in two parts, 1999. Image courtesy the artist. 

 

 

About the artist

Mona Hatoum

Mona Hatoum exhibited in The Precious Clay, Museum of Royal Worcester, 2019.

Image: Mona Hatoum, T42 (gold), 1999. Gold trimmed fine stoneware in two parts. Copyright Mona Hatoum. Photo courtesy Alexander and Bonin, New York (Photo: Bill Orcutt).