Quite a few painters proved in their works that colours can create amazing illusions of depth and perspective, and in some cases almost give a sense of infinity to a composition.
Hassan Hajjaj is not a painter, yet the way he uses colours in his photographs, garments and interior design pieces often made with found materials (check out his Riad Yima, the house he designed in Marrakesh), betray an artstic eye and a highly creative spirit.
Born in Larache, Morocco, and currently living between London and Marrakesh, Hajjaj is a completely self-taught artist.
He undertook photography in the late '80s, honing his skills throughout the years, while he developed his own interior design language by creating unique pieces for a tea shop he co-owned with his brother and sister. Hajjaj was also the maverick owner of a pioneering London-based shop selling sportswear and African inspired clothing.
Best known for designing the Andy Wahloo bar-restaurant in Paris, in the last few years he has been exhibiting his work in quite a few countries, or rather continents, from Europe to Africa.
In September, The Third Line gallery in Dubai presented Hjjaj's series “My Rockstars: Volume 1”.
The latter features studio portraits suspended between fashion and art that call to mind and reinvent early African studio photography.
Friends - among them fashion designer Joe Caseley-Hayford, Moroccan musician Hassan Hakmoun, gnawa-player and Electric Jalaba member Simo Lagnawi and Kora-player Boubacar Kafando - and other characters from the streets of Marrakesh - including snake charmers and male belly dancers - appear in his portraits.
Some of them are wearing in the portraits garments designed by Hajjaj, others are sitting on his recycled pieces of furniture, all are standing in front of colourful or intricately patterned backgrounds in which ultramarine blues melt with bright pink, lime green, burnt orange and cinnamon shades.
The photographs are usually completed by a frame formed by rows of soft drink cans neatly arranged on a shelf.
The final effect with all the various textures and textiles clashing and combining together is a riot of colours, a crossover between traditional portraiture and Pop Art, with a strong emphasis on individual and original style.
An eclectic musician may mix samples to create the perfect track, Hajjaj borrows instead the traditional patterns of Moroccan tiles, the colours of the spices and of the leather babouches sold in the souk and remixes them in a modern and visually appealing key.
“My Rockstars” will hopefully hit London next year, in the meantime, let's close our eyes, pretend we're in Morocco (or in Hajjaj's pop up studio in London...) and let one of his sitters, menswer designer Joe Casely-Hayford, tell us about his experience with this unique artist.
How did you meet Hassan Hajjaj and can you tell us more about the background to this shoot, for example how was taking part in it, turning for once into a model in someone else's photograph and wearing unique clothes designed not by yourself but by Hajjaj?
Joe Casely-Hayford: I first met Hassan towards the end of the 1980s. We were part of a new generation of designers and creatives working in London. Hassan had just opened his ground breaking store called R.A.P in Covent Garden. He sold a fusion of sportswear and African inspired clothing; he also launched a label called RAP SPORT ahead of its time. One of the most exciting elements about that period was that it was the first time street fashion became integrated into high fashion. We were interested in deconstruction and the new styles which emerged from London’s unique juxtaposition of class and culture. Recently, I heard that Hassan had been working on this project for 13 years. I admired his incredibly sophisticated vision, energy and taste and was keen to find an opportunity to collaborate. We were both among the first artists/designers to take up studios in London's Shoreditch, I had a loft space overlooking Shoreditch Church and Hassan’s store was in the road opposite. A year or so ago a popular Japanese fashion magazine invited me to select the most exciting stores in London. Rather than going for the usual suspects I included Larache by Hassan’s store in my list. He showed me his “Rock stars” project and invited me to sit for him - an offer I couldn’t resist. I love the tradition of African studio photography, and was so excited by his continuation of this theme in a totally modern global context. I introduced him to my son Charlie who designs the Casely-Hayford collection with me. He shot both of us. When Charlie was asked to style and art direct a story for the latest issue of GQ STYLE magazine in the UK, Hassan’s name was top of the list of photographers.
He shot a series of London artists and characters that had started their careers in the late '80s and are still active today. This shoot was seminal for a number of reasons; it showed his work on European artists and captured a point when fashion and a cultural moment collide. I feel as though this is his time. I felt completely at ease sitting for Hassan. Our aesthetic styles often draw from the same reservoir although the result may manifest itself differently. I designed the hangman slippers I'm wearing in the pictures during my time as Creative Director of Gieves and Hawkes in Savile Row and felt they were just at home in this setting. Perception is often a great misunderstood element in black art. My feelings about turning into a model were all positive. Sometimes there’s a fantastic point during the creative process when one can be unsure of the conclusion but having complete faith in the idea propels you forward. This was one of those moments. Hassan’s clothes transcend fashion. This felt like a culmination of all those years working as independent creators in London.
I found the portraits absolutely beautiful, but also very meaningful as they play a lot with issues such as identity, masquerade, disguise and the act of portraiture: was taking part in this shoot a bit like playing a performative act and deconstructing and reconstructing your identity?
Joe Casely-Hayford: One of the things that really excited me was the “Pop up studio” idea. It was a cold grey London day. We shot outside Hassan’s shop in the traditional East End of London. Once in the temporary studio setting, wearing his wonderful clothes an almost folkloric mood took over and as the sitter I could feel an unusual sense of liberation unlike any of the portraits I have sat for in my London designer persona.
While it is easy to see a connection with Seydou Keïta's images, the portraits made me think a lot also about other issues such as the history of black dandyism and black arbiters of style using clothing and dress to define their identity in different and changing political and cutural contexts. In your opinion, does Hajjaj hint at black dandyism as a mode of analysing black aesthetics or as a way to show the visionary nature of black history and culture?
Joe Casely-Hayford: Hassan is dissecting the role of the Urban Nomad as defined by Edward Said. The idea of the “pop up studio” which could be anywhere in the world and the appropriation of the western sartorial suit silhouette are as much about duality, ambiguities of heritage and identity as black dandyism.
There are quite a few contemporary artists, for example Yinka Shonibare, who, through photographs and installations, try to tackle the changing relationship between the black dandy's body and his clothes to tell a longer story about African diasporic identity and the representation of blackness across time and culture, would you say that Hajjaj's pictures also tackle these issues?
Joe Casely-Hayford: Yes, I can see a strong thread between Yinka’s work and what Hassan is saying. But from a simple fashion designer's point of view it is very interesting to observe that his clothes and imagery could sit quite comfortably in the wardrobe, boutique or style magazine of an elegant European aesthete - see Dries Van Noten or Jonathan Saunders and many others. It’s like a kind of Picasso-Modigliani moment all over again.
Many years have gone since you worked on the exhibition “The Art of African Textiles – Technology, Tradition, and Lurex” at London’s Barbican: when will we see you again designing/curating/working on another exhibition?
Joe Casely-Hayford: That was an enjoyable experience. Right now I don’t have any plans to work on an exhibition although I’ve just submitted some pieces to the V&A in London for a forthcoming exhibition on British style, so one for my London designer persona.
Photographs:
Caravane, Metallic lambda print on dibond with wood & found objects frame, 2011
Simo Lagnawi & Boubacar Kafando
Meriem & Khadija Marmouche, Metallic lambda print on dibond with wood & plastic mat frame, 2012
Joe Casely-Hayford, 2012
All images by and courtesy of Hassan Hajjaj. Special thanks to Hassan Hajjaj for his photographs and to Joe Casely-Hayford for answering my questions.
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Anything that colorful and bright is, for me, beautiful to the eyes! I love and adore this. Most of all, the people in the pictures look like they are enjoying what they are doing!
Posted by: Play Bingo | November 06, 2012 at 04:22 PM