Art_Africa_2016_03_

ARTAFRICA

REVIEWS

MY ROCK STARS / CYNTHIA BECKER

MY ROCK STARS

A look at Hassan Hajjaj’s exhibition

at the Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts

by Cynthia Becker

In his video installation entitled My Rock Stars Experimental, Volume 1 Moroccan-born

artist Hassan Hajjaj combines nine separately filmed performances by musicians who

inspire him – all of whom are associated with the African diaspora. Gnawa, jazz, hip-

hop and capoeira musicians perform one-by-one and each, in turn, listens to the others,

tapping to the beat or swaying to the rhythm. Hajjaj’s work brings together people who

could relate to his own immigrant experience – Jamaicans, Brazilians and Nigerians –

who, like Hajjaj, live far from their homelands after having migrated to London.

‘Hassan Hajjaj: My Rock Stars’ at the Worcester Art Museum was organised by Newark

Museum curator Christa Clarke and also includes individual photographs of each

performer. Hajjaj uses colourful plastic mats for both the photographs’ backdrops and

the frames themselves. He designs the clothing worn by his models and prints each

photograph on a high-gloss aluminium panel that gives the images a sharp and vivid finish,

resembling product packaging. However, the commercial feel of his work should not

detract from the seriousness of his artistic mission. His photographs can be characterised

as a reflection on transnational diaspora communities, capturing the innovative cultural

and aesthetic forms immigrants have created in their new homes.

Hajjaj moved to London from Morocco as a teenager in the 1970s and bonded with

those who also felt like outsiders. “As immigrants, we were thrown together in the same

place, we were searching and we had to find our own way and create our own village,”

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