The Bite Magazine - Spring/Summer 2021 - Issue 29

biteart Images courtesy of Yossi Milo Gallery Having previously worked as an assistant stylist, Hassan designs or styles the outfits himself, including custom suits, shoes and hats, popped with loud colours and dazzling patterns, empowering his subjects to explore larger-than-life personas before the camera. As per his custom, each portrait is bordered with a handcrafted frame outfitted with small shelves and consumer products such as cans of tomato sauce, car paint tins and soda cans, often accompanied by Arabic logos. The My Rockstars exhibition held at Yossi Milo Gallery in New York from 25 March to 12 June 2021 featured a site-spe- cific installation, Le Salon in the gallery’s viewing room with custom-made furniture and interior design elements. A one-channel video installation presented performances by select members of Hassan’s ‘rockstars’ ensemble alongside cabinet pieces showcasing shelves of the hand-crocheted hats and socks that the artist sources from his local Marrakesh souk or other markets around the world. Hassan’s past exhibitions include Noss Noss: Photograph- ic Works and Other Moroccan Stories at The Third Line in Dubai, UAE, in 2007 and Doha, Qatar in 2008. He showed Dakka Marrakesh as part of the Rose Issa Projects at Leighton House Museum, London, UK in 2008 and again at the 8th Bamako Encounters African Photography Biennial in Bam- ako, Mali in 2009. That same year, he exhibited 1430 in Casa at the Matisse Gallery, Casablanca, Morocco and Le Salon at The Chapter Gallery in Cardiff, UK. His Rock Stars Volume 1 first exhibited at The Third Line in Dubai, UAE, in 2012 and again the following year. The series also showed at the Newark Museum in New Jersey, USA and Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts, USA in 2015 and Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in Tennessee, USA in 2016. The extension of this particular series included My Rock Stars: Experimental Volume 1 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2013 and Volume 2 at the Gusford Gallery in Los Angeles, California, USA, in 2014. My Rockstars at the Yossi Milo Gallery marked Hassan Hal- laj’s first solo exhibition at the gallery. www.yossimilo.com/exhibitions/my-rockstars