Mohamed Yakub is a Kenyan born American who has been a practicing architect for thirty-six years. He has worked on high rise building projects internationally as well as in the United States, recently completing the LONDON NYC HOTEL, a 55-story all-suite hotel on West 54th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. Currently, he is the Director of M Yakub Art & Design, a design firm that he owns in New York.

He is also passionate about photography and works with long-exposure abstract photographs, which, he recently has begun mirroring in a style reminiscent of Mandelbrot patterns. These mirrored images often result in shapes resembling faces.

He has since transitioned to designing majestic kimonos using similar techniques of mirroring and long-exposure photography. Yakub believes that the kimono is not merely a garment of tradition but a creation shaped by history and has reimagined it as a dynamic and evolving form, moving beyond its conventional status as an exotic symbol. In an artist statement he said, “My work began by studying the kimono’s architectural structure, using its design to explore storytelling and historical narratives…Inspired by the garment’s journey—from its Chinese origins to its reinvention in Japan—I examined how cultures evolve, merge, and influence each other. This concept was further shaped by my earlier exploration of African masks, particularly the resultant digital T-shaped silhouettes. This helped me understand the similarity in the kimono’s proportions, design and more importantly, its role in storytelling.”

Ultimately, his kimono project pays homage to the kimono as an art form while evolving it. By staying true to the traditional structure while infusing it with contemporary imagery and global influences, the artist creates a unique fusion. This approach not only respects the original form but also demonstrates the universal language of art.

I met him at the 11th Hour Art Gallery where his work is being exhibited until the end of January.

Japan Contemporaries (JC): Tell me about how this project began during the pandemic lockdown.

Mohamed Yakub (MY): The photos on the kimonos are photographs that were taken between 2020 and 2023. They’re a historical record of my experience of being here in New York during COVID—all of them are all pictures of something here in New York. (He gestures to the kimono below.) I started off with this particular one, because it’s most representative to the moment of COVID. If you look at it, it’s  actually a photograph of outdoor dining—remember those?

JC: I definitely do. I’m sorry to see them go.

JC: You begin with photos and then print them on the silk. Are these multiple exposures?

MY: It’s always only one picture. So you’re looking at that picture and then it’s mirrored. And then mirrored, and mirrored, and mirrored, and mirrored, and then stretched. Then if you step back, it starts taking on facial characteristics.

JC:  It’s almost like a mandelbrot. So you mirror the images at the seam?

MY: Yeah.

JC: During the pandemic I’m assuming that you were like all of us kind of taking time, going out on long isolated walks in nature.

MY: Well, this (the photo) is from my balcony.

JC: With the depiction of nature I thought you were in it! But seeing the world from the inside out was also what so many of us experienced. ….Okay. So you’re in Riverdale on your balcony. But like you were saying, time slowed and our world was defined by very specific places.

MY: Exactly. You’re sort of like taking stock of where you are. And then also the realization that, you know, you don’t have to get out on the plane, you were just experiencing life where you where. (He shows me the kimono below.) A lot of people look at this and say, oh, that’s in Japan, or that’s in China. That’s a Chinese scroll. And it’s not. Life was right outside my window.

JC: That’s just one of the beauties of this series. We often overlook so many things and really an entire world that is always changing is right in front of us. All we have to do is be curious about it and then it opens up.

MY: This photograph is really interesting to me, because in order for me to take it I had to study how the Palisades [across the river in New Jersey] slope down. And then at the end of the day the sun is still hitting the bottom of the Cliffs when the top of the mountain is already dark. So, yeah. It makes a beautiful composition.

JC: Yeah. This is also very Japanese to me. But then maybe if you take the time to look at a mountain and study it the way Japanese and Chinese artists did, you will see the similarities.

MY: Yes. And then you realize what it was that the Japanese had discovered with the kimono and combining it with images of nature.

JC: Let’s go a little bit more into the impact of COVID and the genesis of this project.

MY: When I first started it, I didn’t say, ‘I’m going to record COVID, right?’ ….But then I did! All the photos I used are from some of my favorite places in New York, ranging from the Metropolitan Museum to the Hudson River and the Palisades. Covid really made us take stock of our lives and in a way the photos are a homage to New York. As I learned how to make the kimonos I got addicted to them because the kimono fabric makes such a beautiful canvas. It’s so beautiful how the silk reacts with light. It has that quality of absorbing and reflecting at the same time. It’s like you’re looking at pearls of light, and so, I love, I just loved it. Yeah. So once I started making one, I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll make another one.’

JC: Moving away from the pandemic, I understand that you’re from Mombasa, Kenya. On the surface it’s surprising that someone from Mombasa would be making Kimonos, but there are parallels between the cultures. We can find many artists of African descent who use fabric in their artworks, such as Yinka Shonibare (UK/Nigeria), Abdoulaye Konaté (Mali), and Billie Zangewa (Malawi). Your artwork is particularly unique because you’re incorporating kimonos into your practice. (He takes me over to a book he produced before his kimono series. In this book one can see the inspiration behind his kimono series. The book is filled with many images that mirror long exposures resulting in what can be perceived as mystic faces not dissimilar.)

MY: And that is a book that had to do with their digital images. And it told the story of the Soninke people in ancient Ghana. And I used images from there in New York and told and retold that story. In this specific format, I was trying to recreate the African mask, using photographs of lights in New York as my “material” as opposed to wood and other traditional sources. Once I had finished that project, I really wanted to work with material and I thought about the kimono.

JC: I love the global aspect of this project. You collaborate with printers in London and your stands come from Germany. Ultimately the kimonos are hand cut by a Chinese couple who don’t speak English, but still understand your instructions here in the Garment District.

MY: Yes, the design is printed in England. I’ve had an Italian on this project and Raymond who is from the Caribbean. We all put it together and, the inspiration at the end of the day was Japan.

JC: Are there any Japanese you work with!?!

MY: Yes, that’s how this all started. First I went downtown to the kimono store on Thompson Street, and I talked to the wonderful woman there and told her what I wanted to do. I bought one kimono and then she said, ‘Okay, hold on.’ And she goes to the back and she comes out with another one I think from the late 1940s actually, but it was eaten away on the collar. And she said, “if you’re going to do this project use this as a model.” And I still have that one. That’s the one I used to guide many of the early ones. It was wonderful for her to do that.

(We take a momentary break and then walk though the gallery where he lands upon a kimono with a sunset image and dark clouds.)

MY: What you’re looking at is a cloud. And I’ve taken the photograph and I oriented it vertically. But what people see is a cross. They see a burning star. You know, they see this like spirit or somebody hanging. There were a lot of people who said that they felt very emotional about it.

JC: Yes, there are connotations of the struggle for civil rights in the United States in this one. In theme and workmanship yours truly is a global project.

(He takes me to another kimono that was inspired by a visit to the MetropolitanMuseum of Art of a Korean vase. He then takes me to a Japanese inspired kimono that has the face of a monkey on it.)

MY: It’s called a macaque monkey. And it’s very, very famous in Japan because it’s sort of ruled over its brood or…you know, it’s, very unusual for a female to be able to do that. And she chose who she wanted to mate with and everything. There was an article in The New York Times about her, which I read the next day after I did this.

JC: What draws me to your work is how it incorporates global influences while remaining deeply respectful of the original form—and yet, it’s also evolving it. Japan is often thought of as a closed society, but that’s not entirely accurate, except perhaps during the Edo period (1603–1868) and other intermittent closures to deal with domestic order. But aside from those intermittent periods it has always exported its culture. For instance, ukiyo-e prints that were used to pad Japanese porcelain and then found discarded in packing crates inspired Van Gogh’s later works, and Monet’s work, in turn, influenced Japanese artists. I see your work as continuing in that rich tradition and dialogue.

MY: Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Everything is global these days—it’s knowledge that’s global. But in the end it’s about remaining true to the art form. 

JC: Right, if you stray too far it’s just a cliche that doesn’t speak to anything.

MY: Yes, that’s why I tried–that’s why I was very strict to stay within the form because that’s where the magic is.