HAMSI, ART AND LIFE


Born in Bejaia in Algeria in 1952, Hamsi has been living in Belgium since he was 27. He was naturalised in 1990.

Even the inobservant soon realise that Hamsi is not one of those introverted or tormented artists. He is fundamentally in love with life; apart from the pain and worries that it inevitably brings, he tries to derive from every experience, every encounter, every memory, a lesson of trust in the world and in the human race. Besides which, instead of jealously guarding this empirical richness, he seeks to transform it into beauty, share it, spread it around.

In his choice of subjects and with his spontaneous artistic style, Hamsi half opens a window onto the world of his childhood, the world where it all begins, where we are endlessly curious about what is around us, where the most insignificant images, facts and words are engraved forever on our minds. His work also expresses his affection for the old days in Kabylia, his love of the light, colours, shapes, landscapes and people of his past.

Although he has fully assimilated Western culture, Hamsi does not slavishly follow the trends and styles of European painting. He is faithful to his origins, constantly seeking to return to the decorative and ornamental work that is typical of them and never far removed from day-to-day life: he expresses himself in fabrics and clothes, crockery and utensils, domestic decor, jewellery and fancy costumes. You might say that all of Hamsi's art is an expression of wonder.

For him, artistic creation is a way of making sure that his culture is not forgotten, of revealing to us the art of Kabyle women as passed down from mother to daughter since ancient times. Some of the geometrical and graphic patterns with which they decorate their pottery date back to prehistory. They are found on carpets and house walls and might reflect superstitious beliefs, for instance warding off the evil eye, or simply be a means of communication between the village women.

Although Hamsi's work is Kabyle in spirit, with its Kabyle objects, costumes and traditions, it is not slavishly descriptive or encyclopaedic. He takes great liberties with them. Firstly, his forms, including those of plants and animals, are systematically stylised. Secondly, using fresh, vivid colours, he allows himself to be guided by his intuition and his imagination as an expert colourist. His detailed and delicate art has often been compared, rightly, to old illuminations and to naïve painting.

Thus Hamsi does not refer to a direct observation 'of the subject' or to photographs, let alone to books or personal notes. There is nothing 'touristic' about his approach. He lets himself be guided by his memory and his creative spontaneity to move us, to recreate an atmosphere that he knows well and that is, in a sense, reminiscent of the atmosphere of fairytales and fables. Although detail is central to his compositions, it is the overall image of a place, a way of life that he is trying to communicate to us, whilst giving it a dreamlike quality.

Because a culture is expressed in its way of life, its rituals, its crafts, its traditional themes, we find in Hamsi's work a combination of stylised 'figurative' representation and work that is almost like calligraphy with geometrical motifs, particularly those seen on carpets. However, the very confident technical mastery is never at odds with the impression of freshness and spontaneity. Thus the large compositions do not follow the rules of perspective, but are characterised mostly by colour and the repetition of identical forms such as roofs, fruit trees and figures.

The portrayals of festivals, weddings and souks, and the scenes of daily life, are teeming with life, bursting with colour. The activities of the people, shown from the front in rather formal poses, are illustrated in minute detail. This almost idyllic world seems paradoxical when you think of the difficult lives of Kabyle peasants. In fact, the brilliant colours of the robes, the big laughing eyes, the trees laden with fruit, the plentiful prickly pears are evocative of an earthly paradise that has virtually no existence except in the minds of children.

These decorated objects are therefore symbolic of the daily work of women and the creativity they express in their homes, whether in decoration, singing or storytelling. This is by no means confined to domestic tasks, however. Hamsi also pays tribute to Kabyle women in his imaginary portraits of the mythical Kahina, or Massa and Anya, dressed up in multicoloured jewellery of mother-of-pearl, cloisonné or repoussé metal. Here he is celebrating supreme beauty, a magnificent echo of the humble Cinderella who repairs clothes and makes meals.

The graphic work with acrylic and Indian ink on long strips of paper is inspired by Berber geometrical motifs and pictograms, based on the henna designs drawn on hands and bodies. For Hamsi these designs are of almost symbolic importance, because they have a function that for him is vital: they are believed to bring good luck. He thus has no hesitation in adding original motifs to this repertoire to create a new language that is both enigmatic and fascinating, full of a secret magic.

Daniel Laroche