Summer 2005 - Derry: Jacqueline Salloum at Void Gallery
CIRCA 112 review  | | Jacqueline Salloum: : Imee (my mother) born: Gaza, Palestine , 2003, 119 x 89 cm, ink jet print and frame, installation shot, Void; courtesy Void | Jacqueline Salloum's solo exhibition is the second to take place in Derry's new contemporary art space, Void. The exhibition features a number of multimedia and film works. The first is a ten-minute video montage called Planet of the Arabs which is compiled from popular American action films, cut rapidly together, accompanied by a heavy-metal soundtrack. The clips range from the blatant violence of Chuck Norris proceeding to beat up his Arab hosts after insulting their food, to interspersed images drawn from light entertainment, such as Kenny Rogers and some sheik puppets on The Muppet Show . The film shows us the range and constant stream of bias and propaganda that have infiltrated mass media. When all the footage is put together it delivers a powerful message, highlighting society's willingness to consume and accept these caricatured images of 'us versus them' without question. The film presents us with the Western, comic-book-style depiction of Muslims as maniacal terrorists or marauding savages invading American visions of Liberty. The film concludes with a quote from the book Reel Bad Arabs by Jack Shaleen, which states"Out of 1000 films with Arab or Muslim characters 12 were positive depictions, 30 were even handed and over 900 were negative." You are left wondering how deeply all these images are absorbed into our psyche, and to what extent they are ingrained within mainstream culture and beliefs. The film-work carries the message, that without the impetus to discover the truth behind these images we become hypnotised by mass media into believing what is right or wrong.  | | Jacqueline Salloum: Caterrorpillar , 2002, mixed media, 21 x 24 cm; courtesy Void | Acting as a complete antithesis to Planet of the Arabs is another film montage entitled Arabs a-go-go , which is a two-minute compilation of 1960s / 1970s Bollywood-style song-and-dance films from Arabic countries. The film offers a more subjective view of Muslim culture and harks back to the innocence, normality and naivety of another era. As you enter the main gallery space you are introduced to a range of popular-culture-based media, which are used to communicate the artist's Palestinian / Syrian-American heritage and beliefs. There are number of high-colour-contrast, graphic-style photo collages based around the artist's family portraits. The first of these is entitled Partition , which is made up of manipulated family photos, cut out and placed at the centre of a large demonstration. Judging by visual clues such as background banners, the demonstration was organised in protest at the Israeli partition of Palestine beginning in the late 1940s. Another of these images is called Imee (my mother) born Gaza, Palestine , which is a 1960s / 1970s photo-portrait that mixes pop-art aesthetics with the classical gilded frame of portrait painting. Instead of the traditional landscape in the background, we see refugee tents stretching to the horizon and soldiers curbing rioters. Again through small visual and historical clues, it refers to her mother's generation and its experience of living with the effects of the British handover and creation of Israeli territories. A toy vending machine, normally found in shopping centres, is appropriated by Salloum and entitled Palestinian refugees , bringing to the fore previous references within the exhibition. What you get for your £2 is a plastic ball that separates to reveal a toy doll. Included is a certificate stating the name and origin of your doll, much in the same manner as the cabbage-patch dolls that were marketed in the 1980s. In the case of these plastic dolls, our expectations of disposable entertainment are turned upside-down. The messages enclosed with the dolls go along the lines of "My name is Ali, I come from Haifa but in 1948 all the houses and lands were stolen when 70,000 Palestinians like my family were evicted from their homes. I now live in Gaza, in Rafah Camp." Various other playful vehicles of communication are used throughout the exhibition, but with obvious sinister undertones. Another such piece is Bazooka , which utilises wordplay as the artist invites the audience to take a seemingly innocuous 'Bazooka' chewing gum from a glass jar. Instead of the traditional 'Bazooka' comic inside we find a political cartoon mocking Israel's ability to negotiate over Palestinian territories. This particular work is reminiscent of political-propaganda approaches of wartime 1940s. With another piece of work it is difficult to discern if it is meant to be ironic, a blatant recruitment-style cry to bear arms, or a feminist statement. The large-scale photomontage Nehno Feda 'Ayou (We are the homeland defenders) consists of a group of women wielding Kalashnikov rifles with a raised Palestinian flag at its centre. The place of youth culture within areas of conflict is explored through a film work-in-progress entitled Sling shot hip hop which chronicles the lives of Palestinian rappers living in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel. It documents their preparations for concerts and discussing the subjects of their lyrics, which include police harassment, the separation wall on the West Bank, and discrimination within housing and educational policies. Corporate and governmental American intervention is also a major theme. Appache and Caterrorpillar are two exhibits, which display convincingly packaged, mock toys of 'Apache' fighter helicopters and 'Caterpillar' bulldozers; they carry health warnings like "Not Suitable for those concerned with human rights." Throughout the exhibition you are left in no doubt of Salloum's political convictions, through her overtly political imagery and statements. In Northern Ireland it is easy to draw parallels with the Palestinian / Israeli struggle, but it is also important to maintain an open mind in discussing the many aspects to these problems. This exhibition offers a unique and personal, insider's perspective on the effects of a conflict, one that seldom gets discussed or even seen in the West. Salloum offers no easy answer to a complex situation but brings into context the many social upheavals of which it is obviously the cause. John Mathews Jacqueline Salloum: Samadoon , Void Gallery, Derry, March / April 2005
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