EXIBITION AT THE GALERY ISABELLE VAN DEN EYNDE (Nov 16, 2015 – Jan 7, 2016) Performance-based Photographs by South African Artists Hasan and Husain Essop

While 2011 show served as an extension of their ongoing concerns with the art’s relationship with religion, often based on memories, rituals and stereotypes, 'Unrest' focuses on new works created in the last year as part of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Art.

Their performance-based photographs highlight a multicultural clash between religion and popular culture, in which they explore the dominating influence of Western theatrics and narratives that are constructed to depict a certain reality. According to the artists, “Each photograph reflects us in a battle of moral, religious and cultural conflict. Two dominant personalities appear, East and West, with all their stereotypes, and environments are chosen as stages on which to perform and define their behaviours.”

Location plays a crucial role in the photographs. At the heart of the series is Cape Town, where the brothers were born and raised amidst a melting pot of various cultures. By choosing locations familiar to them, they shoot each landscape in a sphere against which they perform and multiply themselves in clones that populate the urban landscape. Their works are autobiographical but continually raise questions about their identity as Muslims and its juxtaposition with Western traits. In doing so, they not only comment on the stereotyping of Muslims, but also on the blurring of individuals as ‘other’ from a Western perspective, and as a practical response to Islamic reservations about the depiction of life.

'Unrest' continues the Essop brothers’ interrogation of their identity within a local and global society, and seeks to capture a growing sense of unease. As twin brothers, their similarities and differences become interesting as new and often personal stories unfold in each work.

Hasan and Husain Essop, Silat Mulut, 2014, Diasec-mounted lightjet C- print on archival paper, 115 x 167.5 cm / Courtesy of Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde

Hasan and Husain Essop, 786, 2014, Diasec-mounted lightjet C- print on archival paper, 115 x 194 cm / Courtesy of Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde

Hasan and Husain Essop, Freedom Fighters, 2014, Diasec-mounted lightjet C- print on archival paper, 115 x 145 cm / Courtesy of Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde

Hasan and Husain Essop, Night Patrol, 2014, Diasec-mounted lightjet C- print on archival paper, 115 x 138 cm / Courtesy of Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde

Hasan and Husain Essop, Chest Beating, 2014, Single-channel HD video, 2 min and 18 sec / Courtesy of Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde

Hasan and Husain Essop

Hasan and Husain Essop were born in Cape Town in 1985. They graduated from the Michaelis School of Fine Art at University of Cape Town in 2006 with a Bachelor of Fine Art, majoring in Printmaking and Photography respectively, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Art in 2009. Recipients of the 2014 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Art, they exhibited their collaborative photographic series 'Unrest' at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, Standard Bank Gallery, National Arts Festival and Iziko Museum, among other venues in South Africa. Recent exhibitions include Remembrance at Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg (2012), Indelible Marks at Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde, Dubai (2011), Figures & Fictions: Contemporary South African Photography at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2011), Peek-a-boo Current South Africa at Helsinki Art Museum, Finland (2011), Halal Art at Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg (2010), Dakar Biennale and BredaPhoto in 2010, and Integration and Resistance in the Global Age at the 10th Havanna Biennial, among others. Their works are held in several private and public collections such as the Deutsche Bank Collection, Spier Art Collection, Durban Art Gallery and Iziko South African National Gallery