Depressed
A desolate, deflated mattress sags under an invisible, oppressive weight, evoking the physical and emotional toll of depression with quiet, unsettling power. Hatoum transforms an everyday domestic object into a meditation on vulnerability, suffering, and the body's absence. The work speaks to themes of displacement, fragility, and the collapse of the spaces we inhabit.
- Location
- Phillips, Salt Lake City, UT
- Spotted At
- Auction House · PhillipsView on map
🔨 Auction Lot
New Now Day Sale
February 29, 2016
Artists in conversation
Doris Salcedo
Colombian · b. 1958
Salcedo transforms ordinary domestic objects like furniture and clothing into haunting meditations on absence, trauma, and political violence, much like Hatoum's deflated mattress. Her installations share the same quiet, unsettling power and focus on the body's disappearance within everyday spaces.
Felix Gonzalez-Torres
Cuban-American · b. 1957
Gonzalez-Torres used minimal, everyday objects to evoke profound emotional and bodily absence, most famously with his untitled billboard of an empty unmade bed referencing loss and vulnerability. This conceptual approach to domestic imagery and invisible presence closely mirrors the quiet devastation of Hatoum's deflated mattress.
Louise Bourgeois
French-American · b. 1911
Bourgeois created sculptural and installation works that channel psychological suffering, bodily fragility, and domestic entrapment through transformed everyday forms and materials. Her deep engagement with vulnerability, emotional weight, and the collapse of personal space parallels the themes embedded in Hatoum's depressed mattress.
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