Nadine Hammam
05 - 28 May 2008
NADINE HAMMAM
"Akl Aish"
Date: May 5, 2008
Venue: The Factory Space
Running till: May 28, 2008
In her first solo show, Nadine Hammam uses women who are ‘marked’ by their professions, street workers, women in business or housewives, and then ‘unmarks’ them through the paintings, freeing them from all locational data, social constraints and moral limitations. Conscious of the art historical references which surround this process, Nadine has adopted a conventional premise that ‘Sexuality and attraction to other is a pursuit of security for the female, and beauty for the male’. Women are motivated by their desire to secure the best possible life for themselves and their offspring. She thus presents women as objects of beauty, seemingly unconscious of their nakedness yet through the graphic linear painting process and control of structure, the viewer is no longer voyeur.
These works bear no names, however they are not untitled. Area codes for titles allude to where the character is from and maps of his/her origin create shadows within the body. In the male figure, Swarovski diamonds represent both an excess of wealth and security - the male figure is ordained with diamonds that are both mapped out and laid in clusters to represent the aerial view of housing settlements, whilst the only time a woman seems to be physically unmasked, is when her eyes bear the Swarovski diamonds which hints at a possible emotion.
Through AKL AISH, Nadine engages the audience to consider what it means to be completely exposed, vulnerable, to be free from a cultural struggle between modernity and tradition, rich and poor, politics and religion, and to question the role of sexuality and its relationship to ‘aish’.
"Akl Aish"
Date: May 5, 2008
Venue: The Factory Space
Running till: May 28, 2008
In her first solo show, Nadine Hammam uses women who are ‘marked’ by their professions, street workers, women in business or housewives, and then ‘unmarks’ them through the paintings, freeing them from all locational data, social constraints and moral limitations. Conscious of the art historical references which surround this process, Nadine has adopted a conventional premise that ‘Sexuality and attraction to other is a pursuit of security for the female, and beauty for the male’. Women are motivated by their desire to secure the best possible life for themselves and their offspring. She thus presents women as objects of beauty, seemingly unconscious of their nakedness yet through the graphic linear painting process and control of structure, the viewer is no longer voyeur.
These works bear no names, however they are not untitled. Area codes for titles allude to where the character is from and maps of his/her origin create shadows within the body. In the male figure, Swarovski diamonds represent both an excess of wealth and security - the male figure is ordained with diamonds that are both mapped out and laid in clusters to represent the aerial view of housing settlements, whilst the only time a woman seems to be physically unmasked, is when her eyes bear the Swarovski diamonds which hints at a possible emotion.
Through AKL AISH, Nadine engages the audience to consider what it means to be completely exposed, vulnerable, to be free from a cultural struggle between modernity and tradition, rich and poor, politics and religion, and to question the role of sexuality and its relationship to ‘aish’.