Spheres of clear hand-blown glass and stainless steel cable
Contemporary Art Collection of the “la Caixa” foundation
Suspended in the circular space of the Sala Horno venue, Web turns the architecture into an enveloping experience. The work takes the form of a spider web made up of steel cables and clear, fragile, shining glass spheres, altering our perception of the place and generating a physical relationship with the space.
The installation condenses some of the tensions that are central to Mona Hatoum’s work: attraction and threat, delicateness and violence, refuge and confinement. The precision of the web hanging over our heads is fascinating in its perfect, carefully-threaded structure, at the same time recalling a capture net. Its presence is seductive but at the same time unsettling.
The glass spheres recall dewdrops or a constellation. Their glinting beauty contrasts with the possibility of getting trapped in an invisible net. In this way, Web turns a familiar motif into an unsettling poetic image of the structures that contain us, connect us and sometimes imprison us.
