ometimes the most ordinary objects hold the richest meaning. Human hair – that most primal extension of our bodies, both revered and reviled – has long fascinated artists, and a new exhibition at Heide museum, Hair Pieces, brings together 38 artists from eight countries who feature hair as their medium and their central theme, exploring its peculiarity and power through sculpture, photography, conceptual and performance art. It’s weird. It’s even a little creepy. It’s also utterly engrossing.
While Hair Pieces initially seems like an oddity, a kooky cabinet of curiosities, it quickly becomes clear that hair has a lot to say about human history, race and gender. Hairstyles, JD Okhai Ojeikere’s series of photographs depicting Nigerian women’s intricate and elaborate hair, captures the years of triumph after the country won its independence from the British empire.
Gender and feminism figure strongly in much of the artwork, perhaps inevitably with a material so contested and objectified. Wiradjuri artist Karla Dickens has crafted a collection of codpieces and aluminium underpants she titles Warrior Woman, one with a massive phallus of human hair protruding from the crotch. They brilliantly subvert gender expectations. Julie Rrap’s Horse’s Tale, from her 1999 series Porous Bodies, cleverly evokes Lee Miller.
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