Stuart Hall Library Research Network Guest blog post: Sayed Hasan and Karl Ohiri

© Karl Ohiri and Sayed Hasan: Side by Side

My Granddad's Car  is an art project, but most importantly a personal endeavour. Our story has moved through Nigeria, Pakistan and England, affecting our families, friends and become part of our history.

I thought about bringing my granddad's car to the UK for many years and decided the best time to do so would be when it retired from its long service in Pakistan. I wanted it to make a journey across the geographic and cultural divide that separated my life from the cars and desired to physically touch it in England.

When mentioning the idea to Karl - while sitting in a pub in New Cross - we chanced upon a coincidence which kick-started our collaboration. Karl had been contemplating his grandfather's car too, after discovering it laying in ruin in his family village in Nigeria. We thought it poignant to combine our narratives and grew excited at the prospect of bringing our granddads’ cars together. This marked the beginning of the project.

After securing funding for our venture and organising the necessary steps to export the cars, Karl and I made our journeys. We understood that the experience would be challenging, but didn't anticipate the events that transpired during our trips. In the short time we spent in Nigeria and Pakistan to oversee the shipment of the cars’, the course of the project radically changed. Both cars’ - a fragile Beetle shell and a beaten-up Toyota Corolla - were unable to leave their respective countries. Karl was tricked by a corrupt port official who decided to hold his car for ransom after it entered the shipping yard in Port Harcourt (where it remains to this day). As for my car, it became lost in a legal fiasco. The car remains the possession of my late grandfather and is unable to leave the country.

After our travels we were left deflated and uncertain about the direction of the project. Eventually however, we come to accept our failure as part of the creative process and a reflection of the unpredictability of everyday life. 

It was a privilege to present a collection of our photography and video work at the Research Network in The Stuart Hall Library in December 2013. We especially took enjoyment from the discussion our project provoked. My Granddad's Car is an on-going project, so gaining the perspectives of a critically engaged group helped us to think about our own project differently.

Many thanks to Sonia Hope and Roshini Kempadoo for their support.

For more information about the Stuart Hall Library Research Network and how to participate, email the Library.

Stuart Hall Library Research Network meeting, 12 December 2013, 6.30-8.00

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.

www.sayedsattarhasan.com


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.

www.karlohiri.com


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