Gel pen and colored ink on five maps a: Gel pen on map b: Gel pen on map c: Colored ink on map d: Gel pen on map e: Colored ink on map
Not on view
Mona Hatoum’s Routes II is comprised of five color photocopies of maps taken from airline brochures depicting flight routes. The maps detail networks created by travel, charting the globe primarily according to movement rather than geographic, national, or political boundaries. Using ink and gouache, Hatoum drew colored lines onto the maps, adding her own hand-drawn abstract designs to the existing webs of the airlines’ routes.
Hatoum was born in Lebanon to Palestinian parents. In 1975, she was on a trip to London when the Lebanese Civil War broke out, preventing her from returning. She decided to stay on, and still lives and works there today. “The nomadic existence suits me fine,” she says, “because I do not expect myself to identify completely with any one place.” She has said that she considers the paths she drew in Routes II to be “routes for the rootless.”
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Mona Hatoum
British of Palestinian origin, born in Beirut, Lebanon 1952 28 works onlineBorn to a Palestinian family in Beirut in 1952, Hatoum moved to London in 1975, shortly before war broke out in Lebanon.
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Maps, borders, and networks
People have been creating maps since ancient times. The earliest map, thought to be a schematic representation of the night sky, was found in the caves of Lascaux, France. It dates to 14,500 BCE.
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Migration and movement
People have always moved around the world. Early humans were nomadic, traveling in search of food, shelter, and safety. Today, people move for many different reasons, including economic, political, cultural, religious, and environmental.
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