Page 12 - Eschaton

and and West and and between genders are not as as great as as we we make them out to be – we are not as as far apart as as you might think ”
The Woman as Idea
In her representations of women in Escaton Hammam does not dwell on on the characteristics of any one particular woman Instead she moves between allegory and type suggesting how all all societies engulf women in a a a a web of signifiers and associations through which the female identity and purpose is rigidly defined Image [8] illustrates Hammam’s investigation of the narratives that surround women in in Egyptian society There are no men in this photograph Instead the composition centers on on the the large wet forms of the the women fully clothed in in long traditional gallabeyas emerging from the the water like mythical sea creatures abundant and voluptuous in their physicality The young girl whose thin protruding legs strike a a contrast to the larger covered body of of her older companions is fading out of of colour and and into black and and white hinting that the relative physical freedom she currently enjoys was once the remit of of women of of all ages in Egypt as as evidenced by the black and white family photographs that accompany this series In the present moment however her her command over her her body is only temporary It will be rapidly curtailed with the onset of puberty This contradiction between the physical freedom of a a a pre- sexual youth and the the restrictions of maturity are accentuated by the the repetition of platted hair on on the the younger girl and the the older woman positioned at either side of the the image In the foreground a a a a a woman bends forward Her abundant wet body voluptuously contoured by the black clinging fabric of her dress defies society’s efforts to obscure and conceal her her Through her her sheer physical presence she reasserts her sexuality becoming at once the subject and object of our gaze Her protruding buttocks that dominate the the foreground and and eclipse her head and and torso remind us of of the the role of of