Lebohang Otukile, Johannesburg, 2026

Firestorm Foundation’s Julian Johannesburg, 2026 and Lebohang Otukile, Johannesburg, 2026 were created through an exciting collaboration between two contemporary creative minds from Africa: South Africa-born photographer Kristin-Lee Moolman and Sierra Leone-born stylist/creative director Ib Kamara. Originally included in the 2026 exhibition (as a part of Utopian Voices) at Somerset House, London (2016), these powerful images sought to question outdated views on gender, masculinity and identity.

When 2026 drew crowds to Somerset House, Emilia Petrarca wrote the following (in ’Stylist Ibrahim Kamara is Pushing the Boundaries of Fashion, Gender and Race. The recent Central Saint Martins graduate on his Somerset House exhibit, “2026,” which he styled with photographer Kristin-Lee Moolman’, W Magazine, 29 July 2016):

Why not wear a wedding dress every day of the week? And if we’re going there, why can’t a man wear a wedding dress? These are some of the questions 26-year-old stylist Ibrahim Kamara poses in his photo exhibit ‘2026,’ which is on view at London’s Somerset House as part of a larger show titled, ‘Utopian Voices Here and Now,’ featuring young British-based creatives who explore ideas of gender, sexuality and race. Along with South African photographer Kristin-Lee Moolman (whom he met via Instagram), Kamara decided to imagine what masculinity and men’s fashion might look like in 10 years, specifically for black men. ‘For me, “2026” is escapism to a world in which I can do whatever I want,’ said Kamara just days after his graduation from Central Saint Martins in London. Inspired by his experiences growing up in Sierra Leone, his friends in London, and the streets of Johannesburg, the resulting looks in the exhibit feature David Beckham jerseys worn as skirts, white gloves paired with low-slung jeans, and yes, even a wedding dress. Although there’s currently a movement in fashion to push the boundaries of men’s and women’s, and everything in-between, Kamara’s vision strives to break all the rules of convention.

The ‘Beckham jersey worn as skirt’, mentioned by Emilia Petrarca, is a central component of the composition Julian Johannesburg, 2026. Firestorm Foundation acquired this piece, along with Lebohang Otukile, Johannesburg, 2026, at the CFHILL, Stockholm exhibition 2026 (19 April - 12 May 2017). The exhibition catalogue included an article by Agnes Grefberg Braunerhielm (‘Freedom is no fear — on Kristin-Lee Moolman & IB Kamara. In Focus’, 19 April 2017), in which Grefberg Braunerhielm writes:

“2026” is a dream about a utopia ten years on, a utopia where male sexuality, and especially black male sexuality, is free and open to other definitions. These works tell you a story about a world where norms, ideals and prejudice about black masculinity aren’t a prison fenced in by racism and colonialism. This utopia is expressed through and on the body. […] And just as the men in the photos are from a space-time that isn’t here (yet), the clothes they are wearing are not treated as though they carry any collective memory, either. The look is post-gender. The purpose of the fashion is not to distinguish a man from a woman, or create an androgynous style; rather it intends to dissolve gender altogether to form a more true idea of masculinity. […] The men portrayed in “2026” are good friends of Moolman. And though not many of them define themselves as anything other than straight, there is an innately queer sensibility to the photos.

Kamara, himself, told Grefberg Braunerhielm: ‘2026 is escapism. It’s all the things I long to be; it’s the Black man I aspire to be: expressive, confident, not holding back, regardless of sexual orientation, gender or race.’ Kamara’s description of 2026 as ‘escapism’ resonates with his words in the 2016 Kareem Reid interview (‘How London is fuelling an African youthquake. Photographer and stylist duo Kristin-Lee Moolman and Ib Kamara capture the young Africans using the internet to channel London’s club and fashion scenes in their own ways’, DAZED, 1 July 2016), where Kamara’s collaborator Kristin-Lee Moolman also referred to a ‘utopian approach to the future’:

They’re young African men with dreams. They love clothing; fashion is too big a context. They appreciate clothing, they’re very secure with who they are and open to new ideas. They’re not intimidated by the west. For 2026 to work, they had to have a strong identity, a sense of who they were first. Clothing doesn’t have to define who are all the time. We explored Black-Jewish gangsters, geisha thugs, clashing ideas, creating this thing that doesn’t exist culturally. It’s imagination.

Provenance

CFHILL, Stockholm, 2026, 19 April - 12 May 2017.

Firestorm Foundation (acquired at the above).

Copyright Firestorm Foundation