Mona Hatoum has been presenting conceptual works that incorporate the geometric forms of Minimalism and give them narrative, and often political content. Her artworks of the last thirty years embody the shifting boundaries and alienation that are central to today's world map, contemporary existence, and her own dual exile from Palestine. + and – is a significant work in her career. A rotating bar placed above a circular bed continually rakes and smoothes sand at a fixed speed. The work expresses in a single stroke the oxymoronic truth of existence and death, destruction and opportunity, and her personal sense of an unstable identity. (CS)

(Born in Beirut, Lebanon, 1952, and lives in London, England, and Berlin, Germany)

+ and –

1994 - 2004
steel, aluminum, sand, and electric monitor
27 x 400 cm
Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery
General Purchase Funds, 2007
©Mona Hatoum