migration – Little Bristling Soul

Mona Hatoum. (British of Palestinian origin, born in Beirut, Lebanon, 1952). + and -. 1994-2004. Sand , steel, aluminum, and electric motor, 10 5/8″ (27 cm) high x 13′ 1 ½” (400.1 cm) diameter. Fractional and promised gift of Jerry Speyer and purchase. © 2007 Mona Hatoum

“This work is a large-scale re-creation of the kinetic sculpture Self-Erasing Drawing Hatoum made in 1979. Replacing conventional artists’ tools (pencil and paper, paint and canvas) with a motorized, toothed metal arm and a circular bed of sand, Hatoum mechanizes the practices of mark-making and erasure. At a rate of five rotations per minute, the sculpture’s hypnotic and continual grooving and smoothing of sand evokes polarities of building and destroying, existence and disappearance, displacement and migration.“

–MoMA