‘Homeland is racist’: Graffiti artists slip subversive messages into background of Showtime hit
Producers failed to spot the messages that were used in a scene depicting life in a Hezbollah-run refugee camp in Lebanon.
Homeland star Claire Danes walks through a narrow alley in Lebanon in the latest episode of Showtime’s hit show, and passes a wall sprayed with graffiti in Arabic. Producers had asked for something generic – they suggested “Muhammad is the greatest” – to give the feel of a Hezbollah-run refugee camp. But the group of three artists hired for the job decided to make a statement.
The message that was seen by more than a million viewers when the episode aired in the US on Sunday was: “Homeland is racist”.
The scene was actually filmed this summer in Berlin, but the group, calling itself “The Arabian Street Artists” – the name itself a tongue-in-cheek jab at the initial solicitation from Homeland producers for the set work – kept their actions quiet until the episode was shown.
On Wednesday, the three – Berlin graffiti artist Stone, Heba Amin and Caram Kapp – published the details on Cairo-based Amin’s website, and the images quickly went viral.
We can’t help but admire this act of artistic sabotage
“I think this really had an impact, and we obviously struck a chord,” Stone, who goes by one name, said on Thursday. “From the reactions we have seen, a lot of people had not so happy feelings about this show so there is a lot of happiness coming our way right now.”