In this week's episode of "Homeland' season five, three graffiti artists were hired to make the refugee camp scenes look more authentic. Instead, such individuals made use of their artwork to associate the hit Showtime series with acts of racism.
For the second episode of the new season, central character Carrie Mathison, portrayed by Claire Danes, was shown walking past a wall that was painted with Arabic script, which states: "Homeland is racist."
Other slogans written on the walls of the Syrian refugee camp setup included "Homeland is a joke, and it didn't make us laugh" as well as "#blacklivesmatter," the artists themselves- Heba Amin, Caram Kapp and Stone - revealed in their personal statement published online.
According to the artists, they received word from a fellow street artist approached by a production company that was looking for individuals capable of adding authenticity to the set to make it look like a refugee camp despite being filmed in the outer reaches of Berlin.
"We considered what a moment of intervention could relay about our own and many others' political discontent with the series," Stone and his fellow artists shared. "It was our moment to make our point by subverting the message using the show itself."
Other unsettling statements that the trio decided to splash on set included: "Homeland is NOT a series", "The situation is not to be trusted" and "This show does not represent the views of the artists."
However, the Arabic script had not been checked by the producers. As such, it seemed that the content written on the walls were not deemed to be of great concern.
"In their eyes, Arabic script is merely a supplementary visual that completes the horror-fantasy of the Middle East, a poster image dehumanising an entire region to human-less figures in black burkas and moreover, this season, to refugees," the artists further shared their sentiments.
Homeland has often been linked to similar controversies during its past five seasons, specifically its representation of the Muslim world and its depiction of an apparently snug relationship between Al-Qaida and Hezbollah.
Earlier this year, Showtime's network president David Nevins revealed that "Homeland' would not necessarily carry on with its focus on Islamist characters.
"We're not necessarily going to stay now and forever [focusing on] US relations in the Muslim world," Nevins said. "We're exploring a few different possibilities and may change it up a little bit."
Showtime's "Homeland' season five returns for its third episode on Oct. 18.
