Summary
Untitled (Wheelchair) is one of a series of works Hatoum has made by adapting the forms of furniture and household objects. Her adaptations generally replace parts conferring comfort and support with elements of potential torture. In one of her earliest works in this series, Incommunicado 1993 (Tate T06988), Hatoum replaced the mattress of a baby's cot with tautly stretched cheese wires. In Untitled (Wheelchair) she has replaced the handles of a wheelchair with knife blades. She has said: 'I see furniture as being very much about the body. It is usually about giving it support and comfort. I made a series of furniture pieces which are more hostile than comforting.' (Quoted in Mona Hatoum 1997, p.20.) Here the wheelchair itself provides a harsh alternative to its normal counterpart, since it is entirely made of polished metal, replacing surfaces which are normally padded and soft with chill steel. The knife blades transform it into a vehicle of perverse torture which will lacerate the hands of anyone foolish enough to take a hold of it. The potential relationship of love and support, for which the wheelchair is a metaphor, has become one of abuse in which both parties are the victims. In the scenario it suggests, the person who needs care and who is dependent on another in order to move is forced to injure the person who helps him… (read more)
Other works of art you may be interested in
