Harvard Art Museums > 2013.16: Hair Necklace (wood) Sculpture Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Hair Necklace (wood) (Mona Hatoum) , 2013.16,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Feb 15, 2025, https://hvrd.art/o/348038. Reuse via IIIF Toggle Deep Zoom Mode Download This object does not yet have a description. Gallery Text Hatoum, a Palestinian born in Beirut, uses everyday objects and personal artifacts to examine the effects of exile and alienation. For this work she collected strands of her own hair and painstakingly formed them into delicate round beads, threading them and placing them on an exquisitely carved wooden display bust. Inserted into the aestheticized space of a gallery, the hair beads — elegant and repulsive — address the disparities between the private and the public body. Hatoum grounds her work in the materiality of the body to convey a sense of the dislocation resulting from forced immigration. Born to exiled parents, she experienced disequilibrium a second time, in 1975, when the civil war in Lebanon compelled her to remain in England. With works such as Hair Necklace, Hatoum uses the most personal of materials — shed from her own body — to evoke the fragments of self one reclaims and values during such experiences of exile. Identification and Creation Object Number 2013.16 People Mona Hatoum, Palestinian (Beirut, Lebanon born 1952) Title Hair Necklace (wood) Classification Sculpture Work Type sculpture Date 2013 Culture Palestinian Persistent Link https://hvrd.art/o/348038 Physical Descriptions Medium Human hair and wooden bust Dimensions bust: 28.6 x 21 x 17.8 cm (11 1/4 x 8 1/4 x 7 in.) necklace: 19 cm (7 1/2 in.) Inscriptions and Marks inscription: On bottom of bust, in graphite: 2/3 Provenance Recorded Ownership History Mona Hatoum, created 2013; [Alexander and Bonin, New York], sold; to the Harvard Art Museums, 2013. State, Edition, Standard Reference Number Edition 2/3 Acquisition and Rights Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Mr. G. David Thompson, in memory of his son, G. David Thompson, Jr., Class of 1958, by exchange Copyright © Mona Hatoum, courtesy of Alexander and Bonin, New York Accession Year 2013 Object Number 2013.16 Division Modern and Contemporary Art Contact am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu Permissions The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request. Publication History Hair Necklace, Very Vary Veri, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, 2017), No. 3, p. 31, ill. (b/w) Exhibition History 32Q: 1120 Contemporary Art, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 08/10/2017 32Q: 3620 University Study Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/31/2019 - 01/08/2020 Seeing in Art and Medicine, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/02/2023 - 12/30/2023 Verification Level This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
