Nila Kartika Wati
In the quiet, contemplative space of London’s Larkin Durey gallery, a new exhibition is challenging the boundaries between historical record and personal trauma. Black & Blue, the latest solo exhibition by Kent-based artist Habib Hajallie, serves as a poignant, visceral investigation into the nature of memory and the enduring weight of loss. By rendering hyper-realistic portraits in ballpoint pen directly onto the pages of found philosophical, sociological, and historical texts, Hajallie does not merely draw; he archives the intangible.
The exhibition marks a significant departure in the artist’s aesthetic practice, most notably in his deliberate transition from the stark, high-contrast use of black ink to the atmospheric, melancholic depths of blue. This shift is not merely stylistic—it is a vessel for the “indescribable emotions that sit beneath language,” a haunting exploration of the artist’s own recent journey through grief, including the devastating stillbirth of his daughter and the memory of his sister’s passing four years prior.
The Core Narrative: A Cartography of Personal Sorrow
At the heart of Black & Blue lies a fundamental question: how does one map the topography of an altered self? Hajallie’s work has long been celebrated for its commitment to uplifting Black cultural figures and family members, rooting his practice in the intersectional identity of a British man of Sierra Leonean and Lebanese descent. However, in this latest body of work, the scope narrows to an intimate, internal landscape.
The exhibition features several self-portraits that capture a spectrum of human experience often left unarticulated: the paralyzing weight of despair, the quiet fog of numbness, and the fragile, fleeting moments of care that emerge in the wake of tragedy. By utilizing antique maps and centuries-old academic writings as his canvas, Hajallie creates a dialogue between the rigid, intellectual structures of the past and the fluid, chaotic nature of modern grief.
Chronology: The Evolution of a Medium and a Mindset
To understand the weight of the current exhibition, one must look at the trajectory of Hajallie’s artistic evolution.
- Early Career (The Foundation): Hajallie established himself through a meticulous process of drawing on salvaged paper. His earlier works often focused on communal identity, reclaiming historical texts and reframing them with contemporary portraits to challenge colonial narratives and celebrate underrepresented histories.
- Four Years Ago (The Catalyst of Loss): The death of his sister marked a pivotal shift in the artist’s emotional landscape, forcing a re-evaluation of the role of art as a survival mechanism. This period initiated the introspective phase of his work that continues to evolve today.
- 2025–2026 (The Creation of Black & Blue): During this period, the artist faced the profound tragedy of his daughter’s stillbirth. The creation of works such as This Mind Hath Demolition Reached (2025) and Still Remain (2026) served as a direct response to this period of profound existential rupture.
- May 2026 (The Exhibition): The opening of Black & Blue at Larkin Durey marks the public culmination of this period of work, transforming private, painful memories into a cohesive, communal space for reflection.
Supporting Data: The Symbiosis of Ink and Antique Text
The choice of medium is never incidental in Hajallie’s work. The ballpoint pen, a tool often associated with mundane, everyday record-keeping, becomes a conduit for deep emotional expression. The contrast between the permanence of the ink and the fragility of the antique paper—often yellowed, brittle, and bearing the weight of previous centuries—serves as a metaphor for the human condition.
Technical and Thematic Observations:
- The Blue Shift: By abandoning the sharpness of black ink, Hajallie invites the viewer into a softer, more bruise-like aesthetic. The blue tones evoke both the physical sensation of a bruise—a lingering mark of an impact—and the emotional association with sadness.
- The Textual Dialogue: The artist selects texts that explore morality, purpose, and transcendence. When he draws a face over a paragraph on ethics, the resulting image becomes a palimpsest. The viewer is forced to read the drawing through the text, creating a layered experience where the history of thought meets the history of an individual life.
- Scale and Scope: The works range from smaller, more intimate portraits measuring approximately 11 by 16 inches, to larger, more immersive compositions of over 30 inches. This variance in scale mirrors the shifting nature of grief—sometimes localized and acute, other times consuming and expansive.
Official Perspectives: The Gallery’s Role in Framing Trauma
The team at Larkin Durey has been instrumental in framing the exhibition not just as a display of technical skill, but as a therapeutic intervention. In their official statements, they emphasize the cathartic potential of the work.
"While this series is concerned with the internal landscape of loss and what it means to endure a profoundly altered reality, each artwork has acted as an invaluable step towards healing," the gallery states. They posit that by choosing to draw directly onto these antique texts, Hajallie’s personal pain is elevated into a broader, universal conversation. The gallery highlights that the work serves as a bridge, allowing the viewer to find their own solace in the artist’s process of "finding meaning" through the medium of drawing.
The exhibition is also an invitation to observe the "in-between" states of emotion—the moments where confusion meets resilience. As the gallery notes, the portraits exude a raw honesty that refuses to sanitize the experience of mourning, making the exhibition a challenging but necessary encounter.
Implications: Art as a Tool for Existential Healing
The broader implications of Black & Blue reach beyond the art world. Hajallie’s work suggests that art can serve as a primary tool for processing trauma, a concept increasingly recognized by mental health professionals and art therapists. By externalizing internal pain, the artist creates a tangible object that can be studied, questioned, and understood.
The Role of Memory and Heritage
Hajallie’s heritage remains a silent, powerful thread in his work. By utilizing texts that likely come from Western or Eurocentric academic traditions, and overlaying them with the faces of those who exist within his specific, personal diaspora, he continues his practice of "reclaiming space." In this exhibition, however, that reclamation is internal. He is not just reclaiming the history of his ancestors; he is reclaiming his own right to grieve, to feel, and to exist in a world that often demands a swift return to normalcy after loss.
A Communal Catharsis
The public reception of the exhibition highlights the hunger for authentic, vulnerable artistic expression. In an age dominated by digital noise and rapid consumption, Hajallie’s slow, deliberate process of drawing with a ballpoint pen—a slow, labor-intensive medium—stands as an act of resistance. It forces the viewer to slow down, to lean in, and to confront the "indescribable" alongside the artist.
Looking Forward: The Legacy of Black & Blue
As the exhibition Black & Blue concludes its run in London on May 22, the impact of these works will likely linger. The pieces serve as a testament to the endurance of the human spirit in the face of insurmountable loss. Hajallie has managed to transform the wreckage of his personal history into a coherent, beautiful, and deeply moving body of work.
For those who wish to follow the artist’s continued evolution, his social media presence—specifically his Instagram—offers a window into his ongoing process, where he frequently shares insights into his technique and the philosophical underpinnings of his work.
In the final assessment, Black & Blue is more than an exhibition; it is an act of courage. By choosing to bare his internal landscape to the public, Habib Hajallie reminds us that grief is not a destination, but a process—one that, through the stroke of a blue pen, can be rendered, processed, and eventually, endured. As we leave the gallery space, we are left with the lingering realization that the most profound human stories are often written in the margins of what we have already been told.
Muslim
Sagoh
