Hassan Hajjaj — Spicy Street

British Moroccan artist Hassan Hajjaj is a film-maker and photographer. His work is bold and bright, feminist, and fearless. His iconoclastic portraits of hijabi women on motorcycles and a burkini-clad surfer ready to head out for a break vibrate with the tension of what is expected versus what is. The cultural modesty of a hijabi woman does not mean that she is meek, his photography declares. It does not mean that she is bashful, or that she lacks playfulness, wit, or grit. Rather, the power of each personality shines over their face masks and their coy playfulness jumps alive in the midst of color and raucous patterns.

Hajjaj almost exclusively uses woven tapestries and bright colors in his backgrounds. The work is a cascade of bright colors, and contrasting patterns. His subjects often wear bright garments with patterns on them as well. The effect is a type of electric quilt of contrasting textures and patterns. The juxtaposition of elements in his work also suggests a global cultural melting pot. Cultural roots and origins remain true, but bold forms of self-expression are culled from regions near and far. Or rather, perhaps Hajjaj is not displaying a contrast of cultural elements, but a comprehensive portrait of what simply is in a world saturated in globalist economic and cultural exchanges.