Exile on Hope Street

Ilham Hamood
Alima Gallery, Sefton Street (1st February – 2nd March 2007)

Reviewed by Alicia Rose

An exhibition has emerged in Liverpool that draws upon a question of faith and freedom. Yemeni Ilham Hamood is the female artist who - through her photographs of asylum seekers and refugees - shows the undercurrent rise of resentment and hate in humanity.

This body of work is worth a view as it has the capacity to create a viewpoint that is individual. It makes you see that the challenging exploration of human behaviour and belief leaves us faced with the brutal fact that people continue to hate each other. Hamood’s imagery is technically sound, her skill as a photographer clever, as she pulls ethereal quality from her subjects.

This is a large black and white portraiture exhibition of people from such places as Liberia, Zimbabwe, Kuwait, Lebanon and Kurdistan, documenting their escape from oppressive adversities like genocide, famine and prejudice. These people flee, but do they find peace?

The accompanying ‘personal stories’ all read a recurring scenario; it is in faith they find their captor. Under the umbrella of Novas, 31-year-old Ilham Hamood gained a photographic certificate and received funding to display her work. The pictures depict a warning. Exigency calls for us to embrace our fellow beings rather than race against them.

For more information contact Russell Wright on 0151 706 6900, or email: alima.gallery@novas.org

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