About This Lot
Hassan Hajjaj is a contemporary Moroccan artist known for his photography, printed fabrics, and films. In perhaps his best known series, ‘Kesh Angels, Hajjaj captures the unique street culture of young female bikers in Marrakesh. Meant to conflate Western perceptions of Arabic society, Hajjaj uses the language of fashion photography, to produce portraits of figures dressed in colorful North African garb. Set within frames of consumer products, including Coca-Cola and Louis Vuitton, the artist’s images recontextualize both fine art photography and popular culture. “My work started because I wanted to show another side of Moroccan culture, something more than that, and the imagery that they’d understand in the same way,” he has explained. Born in 1961 in Larache, Morocco, he moved to London to live with his father at 13 years old. As a young man, Hajjaj worked as a music promoter, often tasked with the job of decorating the interiors of club venues with designs, furniture, and flowers. Over the following decades, while working as a designer, the artist began producing photographs and films which conveyed the complications of his cultural identity. He currently lives and works between Marrakesh, Morocco and London, United Kingdom. Today, Hajjaj’s works are held in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Lazaar Foundation in Tunisia, among others.