11/28/2011
A little bit of self promotion never hurt nobody right?
This is the first group exhibition I curate for Art Basel Miami Beach and I’m beyond excited… Hair is the theme and it comes from a lifetime struggle and a love-hate relationship with my hair.
Hair shapes your identity, it’s a crucial element when projecting your image into the world. Your hairdo says a lot about who you are, it’s a vector of creativity and self expression.
That’s why everybody gets murderous thoughts when the hairstylist fucks it up!
HAIRED group show will be happening in Miami at LMNT Galley (Wynwood Art District) in 4 Days!!!
In the meantime my lovely artists will tell us about their relationship with their hair in a back to back interview, split in 4 episodes… Stay tuned!
Featured Artists:
Gemma Fleming (usa)
Manu Hell (italy)
Francesco Masci (italy)
Maxine Nienow (mexico)
Paul Lucchesi (usa)
Lara Pacilio (italy)
Beatrice Schleyer (usa)
Seanna Sharpe (usa)
Virginie Sommet (france)
Kevin Vast (france)
photo by Kevin Vast
Virginia: What has been your relationship with your hair throughout your life?
Paul LUCCHESI: My relationship with my hair has been an ever changing medium of self expression. In my early pubescent years it was a means of expressing my individuality and rejection of the status-quo. Spiked, Rockabilly, shaved then long.
Francesco MASCI: We broke up many times and we still fight, especially after we wake up.
Manu HELL: My hair has been my favorite toy to play with. I wore every haircut, style and color. Now that I’m getting older my relationship with myself, therefore with my hair, has changed, and I just Iike to let my hair be…I don’t change it as much, I don’t do much to it. i’m definitely not attached to it.
Beatrice SCHLEYER: I started dying my hair when I was 9, and have been my own primary hairdresser since age 12. From age 14 to 17, it was a constantly growing and evolving post apocalyptic dreadlocks sculpture, with everything from curled telephone cords to snake vertebrae wrapped around it. Eventually, when too much entropy had accumulated up there I cut them all off. Since then it’s been platinum, blue, permed, shaved….I have had an incredible variety of hairstyles in my life, and they always have served more or less to supplement my chimerical sense of style.
Virginie SOMMET: Very long and very creative. I’ve always got long hair. It’s always been the continuity of my outfits. I always treat it like material. It is the reflexion of my mood for the day.
Gemma FLEMING: I spent some time growing up in circuits of congenial grooming, specifically pageantry and modeling. For that brief period I had the impression that your looks were what directed the majority of your choices. One of those categories was how one would wear their hair accordingly to fulfill an aesthetic standard, whether curly and big to bone straight and thin. I remember a scathing experience when I was 13 after walking into one of my first photo shoots with my freshly bleached mop of blonde streaks, a hairstyle much different from my usual bundle of black hair. As I stepped in front of the camera a few discerning looks swept over the face of my agency’s instructor. He later pulled me aside and asked if there was a reason why I had decided to do this to my hair, as if it was a means to get a rise out of him. I looked at him and told him “I like it”. I had learned from that moment of turning his complaint away the firm concept that my hair was mine, no matter if someone liked it or not.
Kevin VAST: To be honest, my hair and I have often been in conflict. Depending on the period, it does not always follow my desires! But when I need a change in my life hair is most of the time part of it.
Lara PACILIO: Hair for me is as important as wearing a nice dress, which makes you feel good and comfortable.
Maxine NIENOW: I grew up with the idea that long, beautiful hair assured I was pretty and would be loved. As I grew up I began to realize this was not necessarily true but noticed I still had an attachment to this idea when I first cut my hair and couldn’t help but cry. To me, long hair made me feel beautiful, loved and protected- if I cut it I could lose it all. Knowing this was not an idea I wanted to keep my whole life I began to push the boundaries of things I was willing to do to my hair in hopes of breaking these fears. I now love my very short colorful hair- I love to express myself through my hair!
TO BE CONTINUED…
photo by Kevin Vast
