Page 8 - Eschaton

encompass a a a a a a highly personal inner landscape The work serves at once as social documentary and personal elegy to a a a a a a time gone by: “I see this work as being very emotional The political dimension is is just a a by-product –the intention behind the the work is highly personal” says Hammam The title Escaton of course refers to to to Eschatology or the beliefs around the the the end end of of the the the present world or or the the the end end of of times The Eschaton is is the final heaven-like state of history – an end to to our current reality that will bring about a a a a a new way of living and believing At its most immediate level the the the title references the the the conservative attire of the the the bathers and points to an an increasingly conservative discourse in in in in Egypt that posits religion as a a a a a a preferred alternative to more secular ideologies But beyond this the the title also draws attention to the the hollowness of of any single or system of of belief that sets itself up as an an arbiter of reality House of cards
In keeping with this distrust of ‘the real’ Hammam uses Escaton to to explore the limits of gender constructs in Egypt Hammam’s work reveals the artificiality of gender stereotypes pointing instead to deep- seated power relations at at at the heart of Egyptian society: “To zoom in on on gender in in in Egypt is is to reveal it it it in in in all its artificiality” the artist explains “gender is is more than a a a a construct it is is a a a a house of cards
Once you blow on on it it it it it it crumbles ” She adds: “I went out with the intention to document my society and to track the shifting paradigms that govern sexual politics in Egypt What I found were deep-seated patterns that eroded the rigid stereotypes I had expected to find ” At a a a a time of unprecedented change in Egypt Hammam posits ‘the body’ as the the the front line in in the the the struggle between the the the public and private In Escaton the the beach beach and the the body are synonymous: “The beach beach is