Monia Ben Hamouda
A New Spelling of My Name
Monia Ben Hamouda is known for her sculptural installations made of laser-cut steel forms that oscillate between image and writing, drawing and sculpture. She complements these works with spice powders such as turmeric, cinnamon, and chili powder, which she throws onto the sculptures by hand or, more recently, with a concrete mixer. In doing so, the artist connects sculpture and space not only in terms of color but also olfactorily.
For her exhibition A New Spelling of My Name at Spazio Lima, Ben Hamouda, for the first time, focuses entirely on the medium of drawing — a practice she had previously pursued more as a sideline, as a kind of sketch or “mental exercise.”
The thirty-two drawings, created this summer in various locations — including during a residency in Spain — unfold as powerful visual narratives. Ben Hamouda works with pastel chalks with a high pigment content and black ink. She blends blurred, smoke-like clouds of color in beige, orange, and red tones with sharp, dynamic lines of ink. The drawings develop a power and tension of their own, resembling a dance of energy. They evoke images of fire, smoke signals, or flying sparks. There is something threatening about them, and at the same time, something incredibly soothing — like gazing into the flames of a campfire at night.
“I started the work with a vague idea of burns and tried to keep them in mind while drawing,” Monia wrote during the preparations for this exhibition. In a time when the willingness to ignite ideological pyres is increasing at an alarming rate, Ben Hamouda’s drawings convey an acute sense of urgency, profound anger, and helplessness. Rage Passing Through Generations is the title of this ongoing series. Cross-generational rage, or the traumas associated with it, is a recurring theme in Ben Hamouda’s work. Having grown up between two cultures (Italian and Arab), the artist constantly grapples with the complex experiences and conflicts tied to this dual identity.
