Yazid & Rania

Hassan Hajjaj’s ebullient portraits marry Western pop culture with his Moroccan heritage.

 

Our first collaboration, Yazid & Rania, is a bespoke framed chromogenic print edition of 50 on Fujiflex paper. The photograph belongs to Hajjaj’s My Rockstars series, in which he tributes an eclectic assembly of subjects from around the world who are all, to him, rockstars. 

Framing

In keeping with his practice, Hassan has designed a bespoke framing approach for the edition. Each print arrives in a hand-made white frame, mounted on Dibond and surrounded by a polka-dot tablecloth border. A label signed by the artist is affixed to the reverse. 

Given the handmade nature of the frame, small ripples and bubbles may be visible in the polka-dot tablecloth where it has been mounted. For Hassan these imperfections are inherent to his method of working with found objects, such as re-used tablecloths, to create his frames.

Edition Background

The work’s central portrait is dated, as with all of Hajjaj works, using both Gregorian and Hijri calendars - in this case 2018/1439.

 

Music is a recurring subject in Hajjaj’s work, particularly the underground scenes of London and Morocco. Yazid Bezaz (right) co-founded Somnii, a collective of rappers, producers, sound engineers and photographers centred on creative freedom and nonconformity. Rania Malek (left) is a singer, model and visual artist who collaborates with numerous creatives in Marrakech, most often in music and fashion.

 

Both embody an attitude shared by Hajjaj of nomadic, cross-cultural collectivism.