YA UMMI, YA UMMI...(2016), painting on canvas, exhibition view from Garry Neill Kennedy: Ya Ummi, Ya Ummi …, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Canada, 2018. Photo: Don Hall, courtesy of the MacKenzie Art Gallery.
YA UMMI, YA UMMI...(2016), painting on canvas, exhibition view from Garry Neill Kennedy: Ya Ummi, Ya Ummi …, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Canada, 2018. Photo: Don Hall, courtesy of the MacKenzie Art Gallery.
YA UMMI, YA UMMI...(2016), work detail, painting on canvas, exhibition view from Garry Neill Kennedy: Ya Ummi, Ya Ummi …, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Canada, 2018. Photo: Don Hall, courtesy of the MacKenzie Art Gallery.
(left) AN EYE FOR AN EYE (2013), screen prints (in collaboration with Malaspina Printmakers), (right) QUID PRO QUO (2013), 36.2 cm x 152.4 cm 5-colour screen print (in collaboration with Malaspina Printmakers), installation detail, exhibition view from Garry Neill Kennedy: Ya Ummi, Ya Ummi …, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Canada, 2018. Photo: Don Hall, courtesy of the MacKenzie Art Gallery.
AN EYE FOR AN EYE (2005), detail, screen print on Rives BFK paper, installation, exhibition view from Garry Neill Kennedy: Ya Ummi, Ya Ummi …, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Canada, 2018. Photo: Don Hall, courtesy of the MacKenzie Art Gallery.
QUID PRO QUO (2013), installation detail, 36.2 cm x 152.4 cm 5-colour screen print (in collaboration with Malaspina Printmakers), exhibition view from Garry Neill Kennedy: Ya Ummi, Ya Ummi …, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Canada, 2018. Photo: Don Hall, courtesy of the MacKenzie Art Gallery.
YA UMMI, YA UMMI...(2016), painting on canvas, installation view, AHVA Gallery, UBC, Vancouver, 2016.
YA UMMI, YA UMMI...(2016), studio detail, painting on canvas, Vancouver, 2016. Photo: Vanessa [?]
YA UMMI, YA UMMI...(2016), studio detail, painting on canvas, Vancouver, 2016. Photo: Vanessa [?]
YA UMMI, YA UMMI...(2016), mock-up detail, 2016.
YA UMMI, YA UMMI … (2018)
YA UMMI, YA UMMI… (2016) was first exhibited alongside print versions of QUID PRO QUO and AN EYE FOR AN EYE as part of Garry Neill Kennedy: Ya Ummi, Ya Ummi …at The MacKenzie Art Gallery (Regina, SK) in 2018.
"Ya Ummi Ya Ummi," meaning "O Mother, O Mother" in Arabic, were the words repeated by Omar Khadr during his interrogation by CSIS agents at Guantanamo Bay. Khadr, a Canadian citizen, was detained at Guantanamo Bay after being arrested in 2002, at the age of 15, and charged with the death of U.S. Army Sergeant Christopher Speer. Khadr later appealed his conviction, claiming he has falsely confessed in order to be transferred out of Guantanamo and serve the remainder of his sentence in Canada. He subsequently sued the Canadian government for infringing his rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms which resulted in an official apology from the federal government and a $10.5 million settlement.
Kennedy created YA UMMI YA UMMI... after speaking with Khadr at a restaurant in Vancouver and gaining his approval for the work. Spotlighting the power imbalances in situations of illegal detainment, this work builds upon the themes of institutional power structures and conditional exchange of goods or services explored in Kennedy's earlier Ethics 101 series.