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Hatoum has explored such themes and motifs extensively over the course of her career. Born in Beirut to Palestinian parents living in exile, she was herself visiting Britain when the Lebanese civil war broke out in 1975 and chose to remain in London and study art. Hatoum’s early works were performative and explored forms of control and constraint, particularly of women. In such performances, she created situations where her body was caged or wrapped, or her capacity to speak constrained. Later she extended this powerful language into larger sculptures and installations. Reflecting on her installation Light Sentence 1992, she describes how: the spectator becomes enmeshed in the shadows of the cages and imprisoned by the structure. And in an installation like The Light at the End [1989] when you experience the intense heat projected by the electric heating elements forming the bars of a gate, you can almost feel the physical pain that someone in a situation of imprisonment and torture could feel. 1 In these works, Hatoum brought the experiences of those suffering and living without freedom into the gallery, creating a space of shared social consciousness. Hot Spot extends the impact of conflict over the entire globe, crucially conveying a sense that the world we live in is wired, dangerous and overheating. Sizzling. As United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres stated, the climate crisis ‘is code red for humanity . . . Global heating is affecting every region on Earth’. 2 Hatoum has noted that this new, environmentally engaged reading of the work, while perhaps not the original intention, ‘is certainly urgent and viable’. 3 To so vividly describe the challenges we face is a vital precondition for change. GB 1 Mona Hatoum interviewed by Claudia Spinelli, Mona Hatoum , Phaidon, New York, 2016, p.128. 2 ‘Secretary-General Calls Latest IPCC Climate Report “Code Red for Humanity”, Stressing “Irrefutable” Evidence of Human Influence’, United Nations , 9 August 2021, <https:// press.un.org/en/2021/sgsm20847. doc.htm>, viewed July 2022. 3 Nancy Spector quotes Hatoum’s discussion of Hot Spot during her lecture at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, 25 September 2015, in Dichotomies of Belonging , Phaidon, New York, 2016, p.184. Mona Hatoum / Hot Spot III 2009 ‘Hatoum makes it clear that we all have a place within the larger web of systems and geopolitical ambitions driving conflict.’ 137 136 Burn Burn