Nermine Hammam: "Wétiko: Cowboys and Indigenes", London, 3 September - 3 October 2014

ROSE ISSA PROJECTS NERMINE HAMMAM WÉTIKO: COWBOYS AND INDIGENES

NERMINE HAMMAM WÉTIKO: COWBOYS AND INDIGENES The Egyptian artist-photographer Nermine Hammam came to international attention following the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, when her critically acclaimed series Upekkha and Unfolding beautifully captured the heady atmosphere of the uprising.

In Wetiko: Cowboys and Indigenes, Hammam’s theme is media manipulation of contemporary affairs, and how our trust can be subverted by the constant rewriting of narratives. Having experienced the chasm between what she witnessed in the streets of Cairo and what was portrayed in the news, she says: “I began to consider how myths are fabricated in society, how images are manipulated for political support, and what implications this has had on humankind.”

Hammam chose her series title from the writings of Native American philosopher Jack D. Forbes. Forbes uses the Native American word “Wetiko” to describe a “person or spirit who terrorises other creatures by means of terrible evil acts”. To Forbes, our compulsion to consume the earth’s resources has led to exploitation, war and terrorism, and Wetikos are at the centre of contemporary life, consuming other people for private purpose or profit. They are in our governments, our corporations, our powerful elites, and our places of worship, and they control public opinion. For Hammam, the pressing issue is not why Wétikos have influence, but what we can do to dispel that influence. This is the premise of Hammam’s Wétiko – Cowboys and Indigenes: how to create a new way of seeing when the published image and word can no longer be taken at face value.

The series draws parallels between contemporary news photography and the paintings of European 19th-century Orientalists and the American artistcorrespondents of the Wild West, such as Frederic Remington and Charles Marion Russell. “If we change one element in an image, it can affect our entire reading of the scene, and if we replace one element with another, a story can be retold,” Hammam says. For example, Russell’s Smoke of a .45 depicts a shoot-out at a saloon. In the foreground, horsemen gallop away from the scene. In Hammam’s composition however, two barefoot young boys run off, carrying equipment. Are they looting or saving their own possessions? Will they survive or not? In trying to discern the “goodies” from the “baddies” Hammam brings another layer of interpretation to the scene: that our differences are far more subtle than we realise.

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From the WĂŠtiko series (2013-2014): AUDIENCE CHEZ UN KHALIFAT by Eugene Fromentin (1859), hand tinted digital collage, 70 x 100 cm, 2013

From the WĂŠtiko series (2013-2014): SMOKE OF A. 45 by Charles Marion Russell (1908), hand tinted digital collage, 70 x 100 cm, 2013

From the WĂŠtiko series (2013-2014): AN ALGERIAN CARAVAN IN EL KANTARA by Alexis Auguste Delahogue (late 19th century), hand tinted digital collage, 70 x 100 cm, 2013

From the WĂŠtiko series (2013-2014): IN WITHOUT KNOCKING by Charles Marion Russell (1909), hand tinted digital collage, 70 x 100 cm, 2013

From the WĂŠtiko series (2013-2014): THE DEFEAT OF CRAZY HORSE by Frederic Remington (c. 1901), hand tinted digital collage, 54 x 80 cm, 2013

From the WĂŠtiko series (2013-2014): THE DESERT AT ASSOUAN, EGYPT by Sanford Robinson Gifford (1869), hand tinted digital collage, 35 x 80 cm, 2013

From the WĂŠtiko series (2013-2014): AT REST IN THE SYRIAN DESERT by Eugen Felix Prosper Bracht (1883), hand tinted digital collage, 41 x 80 cm, 2013

From the WĂŠtiko series (2013-2014): RETURN FROM THE TIGER HUNT by Rudolf Ernst (1896), hand tinted digital collage, 70 x 100 cm, 2013