I am thrilled that my review of George Osodi’s exhibition curated by Christa Clarke – Royals and Regalia Inside the Palace of Nigeria’s Monarchs: Recent photographs by George Osodi – at the Newark Museum in 2015 has just come out in the publication African Arts, Fall  2016, vol 49 published by MIT. You can read it online.

Obi James Ikechukwu Anyasi II, Obi of Idumuje Unor

George Osodi who is internationally famous for his powerful photographic series on the damage being done on the environment and life in the oil rich Niger delta, is now celebrating Nigerian cultural heritage.   His new series Nigeria Monarchs on view in a splendid exhibition Royals & Regalia: Inside the palaces of Nigeria’s Monarchs at the Newark Museum captures from an African perspective – Osodi emphasizes this point – the contemporary cultural relevance of today’s Nigerian kings in the process of peace making at a local level and in preserving a sense of cultural identity.

“ Nigeria is not only rich in natural resources but also in its religious and cultural diversity. I believe this should be a source of strength and unity among the country’s various ethnic groups, rather than something that creates division and instability. Documenting and archiving culture is a key to understanding cultural origins, and thus developing a sense of identity.”

The Emir of Kano Alhaji Ado Bayero

Osodi is driven here by a sense of pride and a timely desire to encourage unity in front of recent challenges such as stark inequality and continuous incursions by Boko Haram in the North. While Nigeria is a republic and those kings have no constitutional power the central government is very distant from the local populace and relies on the kings to keep peace. Osodi reminds us not to look at his country – artificially carved by the colonial powers – through the sole prism of our western experience with democracy but to understand and appreciate its own history and cultural ressources.

Pere Donokoromo II, The Pere of Isaba Kingdom

There are many kings maybe almost 2000 says Osodi who aims to photograph 100 of them. He has photographed 50 kings by now in full regalia in a setting of their choosing. Most of them are seated on a throne or standing in their palaces often with their attendants at their side in keeping with the more traditional way of recording power and privilege. Adorned with the traditional regalia – beaded headdress and necklaces – they exude quiet dignity and wisdom. What makes this series particularly dynamic is the inclusion of more candid shots of the kings, the emphasis on architectural setting, interior décor, and rich textiles. Visually it is a feast for the eyes. The monarchs’ love of color and adornment and their individual taste is wonderfully captured and adds whimsy to the serial quality of the project and the sense of permanence that exudes from these portraits.

Emir of Zauzau (Zaria) Alhaji Dr. Shehu Idris

Oba Okunade Sijuwade Olubuse II, OONI of Ife

Osodi’s professional background is documentary photography and his Monarchs series situates itself within a longstanding tradition of African portraiture. However, he brings to this tradition a contemporary flair and an artistic eye evident in his conceptual approach and his play with color and texture.

Benjamin Ikenchucku Keagborekuzi I, The Dein of Abgor Kingdom

HRH Queen Hajiya Hadizatu Ahmeda,Magajiya of Knubwada

Some of these monarchs were crowned in early childhood: At a dinner giving by Christa Clarke, the curator of the exhibition, I sat next to HRM Benjamin Ikenchuku Keagborekuzi, The Dein of Agbor Kingdom who was crowned as the age of two. He was raised in the UK and straddles both worlds. I was quite happy to see that two women monarchs were included in the show. One of them has had a successful career in the US prior to taking on her regal responsibilities. Hers was not an isolated case; many of the monarchs are successful professionals in their civilian lives. The contemporary reality of their lives added to the fusion of the traditional and the contemporary evident in the outfits and settings took care of any feeling of anachronism that might have lurked in my Western mind.

I met Hassan Hajjaj at a casual dinner given by Christa Clarke who was hosting a few guests at the occasion of the opening of two photographic exhibitions at the Newark museum: Hassan Hajjij ‘s My Rock Stars and Georges Osodi’s Royals & Regalia. The curator of African arts at the Newark museum, Christa Clarke is a staunch advocate of African contemporary art. She has put together a program of noteworthy exhibitions and is expanding the museum collection of contemporary African art in a significant way.

I had recently bought one of Hassan Hajjaj’s works from the My Rock Stars series – a decade long project where he stages and photographs his friends from the music world – and I was eager to meet him.  Hassan is not a man to easily categorize and that made him instantly appealing to me in addition to his warm smile and charisma!  His slightly disheveled look, beard, hair tied in a knot at the back of his head, marked face were all signs that suggested hard living which all added to make the mix intriguing.

While a Moroccan by birth, he speaks with a pronounced English accent, which surprised me since to my mind Morocco is more connected to France. I was soon to learn that he was born in Marrakech, and moved to London as a child. It was there that he was driven to create” his own village”; a community of culturally diverse and creative individuals where he could feel at home. Self-taught he learned by doing, delving along the years into the worlds of music, fashion and design. These rich and diverse professional experiences feed into Hassan’s current artistic practice, which includes photographic work and room installations (part pop-up nightclubs, part urban café)). He now splits his life between Marrakech and London.

Hassan is above all multicultural. His brand of multi-culturalism is Moroccan-infused. He rethinks cultural relationships and creates art works that reflect his idea of an inventive fusion where tradition meets the contemporary and cultures mingle to create a new vision that is essentially positive.

His photographic work at first glance falls into the tradition of African studio portraiture. Carefully staged, he poses his subjects – a variety of musicians such as well-known masters of Gnawa , a type of popular music inspired by African-Islamic spiritual songs to hijab-clad young women – against brightly patterned textiles, often with furnishings and clothes that he designs. Because of his experience with club culture, cat-walks and fashion shoots he makes the images look cool, sexy, his eye for fashion shaping the image into something dynamic and contemporary.

He breaks with tradition by moving “his studio” in the street and documents people moving in an outdoor setting. His Kesh Angel series of women bikers driving through the streets of Marrakech are truly novel and unique in the fusion of tradition and the contemporary, the Arabic and the Western world. At once cool and threatening, depending on which side of the cultural divide one is, these images challenge the female stereotype of both Western and Arabic cultures.

His frames are specific to each piece and are three dimensional incorporating serial arrangements of packaged goods labeled in Arabic. As Martin Barnes, chief curator of Photographs at the V& A says: “ By drawing attention to framing, Hajjaj makes the photograph inescapable as a physical object. It is not an impartial image to be read, opening like a window on the world. Rather, it is a partially-staged confection, derived from reality but ultimately a manipulated and recontextualised view point. “