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Drawing, Ballpoint Pen on Paper
Size: 17.7 W x 8.3 H x 0.1 D in
Ships in a Box
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Artist Recognition
Artist featured in a collection
ABOUT THE ARTWORK
15 X 21cm each (45 X 21cm total) This triptych won The NG Creative Residency prize at the Wells Art Contemporary exhibition 2020. There is an underlying ethnocentrism present in modern society, rooted from archaic colonial structures. This ballpoint pen series of self portraits looks to empower people marginalised as a result of structural racial prejudice that I feel is embedded in western society and in some manifestation or another, is perpetually apparent in the day to day lives of minorities. Until recent atrocities of police brutality have gained strong visibility, these issues were not discussed consistently enough for impactful change, this feeling of oppression whether on a macro or micro level can be felt when you are a minority living in the UK. As a somewhat racially ambiguous young mixed race man, I am made all too aware that I am different; with questioning apropos to my ethnic heritage being a constant. This apparent curiosity of one’s race feels as though judgement is being passed on you solely based on your pigmentation & ethnic heritage. I am immensely proud to be of Sierra Leonean and Lebanese descent, whilst being conscious of being the first generation of my family to be born in the UK and feeling that I must work harder and go further than my white counterparts. It can become exhausting expecting a line of questioning on your heritage when you meet people - your pigmentation can be used to evaluate what kind of a threat you are. Thus, the narrative of this triptych shows an adherence to certain racial stereotypes by creating three caricatures of myself to convey the nuanced racial prejudice that I have experienced. These works respectively reflect over-simplified labels of various demographics that lie beneath the veneer of disingenuous tolerance. The Black stereotype drawn on an 1866 map of Africa plays to the notion that black men are inherently aggressive and that black men do not smile in pictures. The white caricature, drawn on an English map from 1907, wears a faux polite smile and is unsettled by the gaze of the two figures situated either side of him. Drawn on an 1866 text of ‘The races of men’, the middle-eastern stereotype looks suspiciously away from the viewer and may be dangerous to the central white caricature. This work sardonically answers the inquisitive viewer’s question of where I am really from with the use of redundant stereotypes, contextualised by the antique maps; whilst paradoxically showing an antiquated ideological domain that the ignorant few may place me within.
Original Created:
2020
Subjects:
Materials:
Mediums:
DETAILS AND DIMENSIONS
Multi-paneled Drawing:
Ballpoint Pen on Paper
Original:
One-of-a-kind Artwork
Size:
17.7 W x 8.3 H x 0.1 D in
Number of Panels:
2
Frame:
Black
Ready to Hang:
Not applicable
Packaging:
Ships in a Box
SHIPPING AND RETURNS
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Ships From:
United Kingdom.
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Habib Hajallie
United Kingdom
My practice looks to empower often marginalised minorities through the exploration of identity within portraiture. Confronting socio-political issues within my drawings can act as a catalyst for a discourse regarding the perception of various demographics as being of lesser humanistic value. Specifically, with the disenfranchised often being undermined by mainstream media; somewhat paradoxically reflecting an archaic hierarchy of status, similar to colonial ideologies. Using antique texts and maps as the canvases for my works enables me to pragmatically re-contextualise ephemera, creating a cohesion between the concepts informing the work and the aesthetic output. As I empower various figures; I simultaneously do so with the ground used, presenting them within new contexts. Placing myself or family members as the subjects of my portraits evokes a sense of immediacy, apropos to navigating the intersection of my western upbringing and familial west African culture. Informed by my Sierra Leonean and Lebanese heritage, I am conscious of representing figures that have historically been conspicuously omitted from traditional British portraiture. I call upon anecdotal references to portray scenes that are occasionally quasi surrealist representations; confronting lingering ethnocentrisms that are still embedded within modern western society. I employ delicate mark making techniques with precise strokes of the everyday ballpoint pen. This process is influenced by sketches from the high renaissance. I meticulously build layers of tonality leading to an element of photorealism. Through an almost contradictory process of using this relatively modern art medium with a classical approach to mark making: I look to celebrate authentic drawing within the digital age. At the core of my practice, I depict motifs that contradict largely accepted revisionist narratives apropos to West African Histories. The portraits investigate how identity can be constructed by historical oppression, with semblances of antiquated ideologies at the root of nuanced prejudices that I have personally experienced. Ultimately, my work looks to embolden individuals that feel as though they have been labelled as the ‘other’ in any manifestation. In March 2022 I was elected as a member of The Royal Society of British Artists.
Artist Recognition
Artist featured by Saatchi Art in a collection
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