Join us for our last Research Network meeting of the year.
Sayed Sattar Hasan and Karl Ohiri will present
My Grandad’s Car
Sayed Sattar Hasan and Karl Ohiri shared a desire, they wanted to touch their grandfathers’ cars in their country of birth and park them side-by-side. After much planning the artists made their respective journeys to Pakistan and Nigeria, only for their ambition of returning to the UK with the cars to end in failure. Instead, Ohiri’s fragile Beetle shell and Hasan’s retired hulk became stuck within dysfunctional legal systems and the uncompromising grip of corrupt officials.
My Grandad’s Car is the story of two friends who set out to explore their heritage and identities through their connections with their cars and each other. Ohiri and Hasan’s project considers the legacies of migration and the relationship subsequent generations have with other home spaces. The artists unorthodox use of ritual and cultural motifs alludes to the sense of ‘familiarity’ and ‘naivety’ they feel towards everyday life in Pakistan and Nigeria, in particular as young British-born men. Through collaboration they look to develop work which disrupts conventional ethnic labels, by representing themselves as culturally hybrid and complex individuals.
The artists will be showing a selection of photography and video documenting their experiences, revealing the intimate acts and processes involved in their on-going work.
Sayed Sattar Hasan – Biography
Sayed Sattar Hasan values art as a way of contemplating and rethinking the social, political and cultural spheres that affect personal and public lives. He is influenced by his Pakistani and English heritage and plays with his hybrid identity to question norms which organise everyday life.
Themes in his work include the family, religion, the body and public interaction, explored through photography, video and installation.
Since graduating in 2009 in MA Photography and Urban Cultures at Goldsmiths, he has received funding from Arts Council England for solo and collaborative projects as well as exhibiting in galleries and art festivals nationally and internationally. Including The New Art Exchange, Heathrow Terminal 5, The primera photography biennale, Lima 2012 and LagosPhoto13.
Karl Ohiri – Biography
The framework of his practice consists of two overlapping points of interest; ‘cultural studies’ and ‘the human condition’. This is explored through personal and public encounters primarily using photography, video and performance.
Since completing his Masters at Goldsmiths University in 2008, his artwork has been a mixture of conceptually driven, documentary based works that consist of natural and constructed images and the recontextualisation of pre-existing artefacts.
His work has been exhibited internationally (most recently at LagosPhoto13) and in various galleries throughout the UK including; The New Art Exchange, Heathrow Terminal 5 and Tate Britain.
Spaces in the Library are limited. Book a place here