WASHINGTON 鈥� A group of street artists hired to decorate the set of a recent episode of Showtime series 鈥淗omeland鈥� used their art to convey what they perceive as the show鈥檚 unfair and inaccurate portrayal of the Middle East.
The artists 鈥� Heba Amin, Caram Kapp and Stone 鈥� say they were contacted by a friend in the German street art scene, who’d been asked by 鈥淗omeland鈥� producers for “Arabian street artists鈥� to provide graffiti for a scene filmed in Berlin (but set in a refugee camp on the Syria-Lebanon border). They say they had mixed feelings at first.
鈥淕iven the series鈥� reputation, we were not easily convinced,鈥� they wrote.
A writer in called 鈥淗omeland鈥� 鈥渢he most bigoted show on television.鈥澛營n the first season, the artists write, the show聽鈥渆xplained to the American public that al-Qaida is actually an Iranian venture,鈥� which isn鈥檛 true.
The show also once named a terrorist character after a former real-life Pakistani ambassador to the U.S.
鈥淭he show gets high praise from the American audience for its criticism of American government ethics, but not without dangerously feeding into the racism of the hysterical moment we find ourselves in today,鈥� they write.
鈥溾�or four seasons, and entering its fifth, 鈥楬omeland鈥� has maintained the dichotomy of the photogenic, mainly white, mostly American protector versus the evil and backwards Muslim threat.鈥�
But they reasoned they could 鈥渕ake our point by subverting the message using the show itself.鈥�
So they took the gig.
The episode aired last Sunday.
