I and We

Okhai Ojeikere: Hairstyles

Nigerian photographer J.D. ’Okhai Ojeikere worked on his Hairstyles series for several decades, turning Nigerian women’s heads into artworks.

For over 40 years, Ojeikere documented the diversity of Nigerian hairdressing in a total of nearly 1,000 photographs, creating a historical archive that illustrates the country’s aesthetic development and the great cultural diversity in its hairdressing industry. His photographs were taken on the street, in offices and at parties. The images follow a strongly systematic approach: the black and white photographs are always taken from above, sometimes in profile. The images’ contrast highlights both the high level of abstraction and the sculptural aspect of the hairstyle. Ojeikere liked to watch the creators of these artworks – the hairdressers – while they worked, and used his photographs to transform their professional accomplishments into sculpture.

Mário Macilau: Moments of Transition

With his Moments of Transition series, photographer Mário Macilau aims to capture the search for identity of contemporary young Mozambicans.

The photographs are all taken on Sundays, when the urban youth have the time and the opportunity to dress how they like and act as they wish, spending a relaxed day together. Their clothing style is an ever-changing mixture of urban fashion and traditional clothing, in a never-ending competition where those who want to make an impression needing to prove their stylishness anew every time. With their choice of clothing and attitude, the youngsters of Maputo do not simply want to impress others; their style enables them to ensure a place in the group, creating an individual identity and to conveying it to the world. This youth movement is greatly influenced by western fashion and lifestyle. Students that return to Mozambique from Europe bring new influences from the fashion industry, and the flourishing second-hand market ensures an increasing demand for European clothing. However, Macilau’s visual language also pays tribute to the heyday of African studio photography in the mid-20th century, creating a connection to a generation that, just like the current African youth, laid claim to a great future and consequently adopted a style that matched these expectations: the generation of the 1960s and 1970s, who celebrated their liberation from colonialism.

MISWudé: Waxology

Waxology is the result of a cooperation between the jewellery and fashion brand MISWudé and photographer Fabrice Monteiro.

The body jewellery is made with the aid of wax-dyed cotton fabric cut into strips, processed using various different techniques and then brought into shape. Both material and form refer to traditional African handicrafts; the aesthetics, however, are also reminiscent of 18th century anatomical studies. At the same time, the body jewellery items play with the same kind of subtle erotica that is typical of sexy underwear in West Africa – in that it enhances, while concealing the body. What is key for understanding the work, however, is the role of wax, the cloth that also gives the work its name. Crucial for West Africa’s aesthetic industry, this fabric stands here for Africa’s lacking sovereignty. It is a product of colonial expansion that has never been manufactured in Africa and today, it is linked with Africa only at the level of consumption and processing. The creative and constructive re-interpretation of the cloth in Waxology – its cutting and re-joining – liberates it from its colonial context, thus symbolizing nothing less than the re-invention of an African aesthetic identity.