Current Disturbance By Mona Hatoum
Current disturbance was made by Mona Hatoum, in 1996 as a body of work based around perceptually and psychologically de-stabilizing the space. The other pieces of work included where Light Sentence 1992, Short space 1992, The Light At The End 1989, and Socle du monde 1991.
I saw the piece in march 2011 at White Chapel Gallery, as part of the showing of the D. Daskalopoulos Collection, in an exhibition Called Keeping It Real. All the pieces within the exibition where taken from the collection owned by Dimitris Daskalopoulos. The Collection has over 400 pieces of international artwork.
The installation was made up simply from wood, wire mesh, light bulbs and electrical wire, the simplicity of the sturture was created to create a more dramatic effect. Hatoum used 228 cages to create a four walled structure, each cage containing a single light bulb which is individually wired to the junction box which is in the centre of the installation. The sound of the current flowing through each individual wire from the junction box to the light bulb has been amplified so that the 60 cycle hum is intensified, this alongside the illuminating lights creates an intense experience, where you cannot help but be drawn in.
The installation was originally seen first in San Francisco where it was associated with prison but Hatoum said in an interview about the pieces debut at Whitechapel“People will read something more into it about cities, perhaps." . The piece is based around urban architecture and surveillance; she described the underlineing message as “It's part of a body of work looking at council flats and architecture as prison – basically, architecture as control.” When she moved from lebanon to london she felt as if she was trapped and constantly being watched, desribing london as "Big Brother-Land".
A video of the piece
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