virgodura:

becky-manson-blog:

Measures of Distance (1988)

Mona Hatoum

Measures of Distance is a video work comprising several layered elements. Letters written by Hatoum’s mother in Beirut to her daughter in London appear as Arabic text moving over the screen and are read aloud in English by Hatoum. The background images are slides of Hatoum’s mother in the shower, taken by the artist during a visit to Lebanon. Taped conversations in Arabic between mother and daughter, in which her mother speaks openly about her feelings, her sexuality and her husband’s objections to Hatoum’s intimate observation of her mother’s naked body are intercut with Hatoum’s voice in English reading the letters. (TATE)

“Although the main thing that comes across is a very close and emotional relationship between mother and daughter, it also speaks of exile, displacement, disorientation and a tremendous sense of loss as a result of the separation caused by war. In this work I was also trying to go against the fixed identity that is usually implied in the stereotype of Arab woman as passive, mother as non-sexual being … the work is constructed visually in such a way that every frame speaks of literal closeness and implied distance.” [x]

rideonmidnightcowgirl:

rideonmidnightcowgirl:

All art is literally just an attempt at grappling with the fact that we have no way of knowing if the minds of other people are actually real.

any and all attempts to translate your lived experience into something tangible to communicate with other people is an acknowledgement that your consciousness ends where your body ends and what you experience as truth must be translated so that what is instinctively known by you can be even vaguely grasped by someone outside of “you” and can enter into their truth

argyrocratie:

“What we mean by equality of the sexes is not just that men will no longer oppress women. We also want men no longer to be oppressed by men, and women no longer to be oppressed by other women. […] Completely overthrow rulership, force men to abandon all their special privileges and become equal to women, and make a world with neither the oppression of women nor the oppression of men.”

— He Zhen, quoted in Chinese Anarcha-Feminism (via cyclideon)