Hair: Power, Style, Story

DRAFT 9/14/2020

HAIR: POWER, STYLE, STORY

Curated by Karen Kramer, HAA198G

Exhibition description:
This exhibition Hair: Power, Style, Story will bring together thirteen extraordinary objects spanning the globe to explore the social significance and style elements of human hair. For thousands of years, hair has been a site of cultural construct and self-representation, and a means of expressing gender, social identity, power, and individual style and politics. Hair styles change over time, and rituals vary across cultures, but hair remains a universal mode of creative and cultural expression. From the ancient to the contemporary,  and representing five continents, Hair: Power, Style, Story offers a visual feast through sculpture, paintings, ceramics, prints, photographs, and coins. Many rarely seen objects will come together for the first time from three renowned Harvard museum collections: Harvard Art Museums, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, and the Museum of the Ancient Near East, allowing us to look across the selection and appreciate the range of visual expression centered on human hair. 

The exhibition will be divided into thematic sections, and within each section, there will be constellations of objects brought together for their visual and conceptual affinities. They will range in size, medium, timeframe, and geography. Some artworks may be best seen as standalone objects within a section.  Though these are still works in progress, current framework may explore the following five themes:
Power explores hair as a symbolic manifestation of divine power. Objects in this section include head rests and stools. Through Portraiture, visitors will revel in the different ways artists have depicted hair textures and styles across form, time, and space, through human figurines, photographs, and sculpture.

Style explores how hair can communicate a sense of self, conformity to group identity, and politics. 

In the Story section, two special objects help tell the Greek myth of Perseus slaying Medusa. And  in Come Together, objects will demonstrate how hair can function as a way to build community and spend time together, through acts of maintenance, beautification, and positive health care and hygiene.  

Five sections may be excessive for thirteen objects, but they range in size from the handheld to several feet, and will benefit from ample space for viewing each object,  designing compelling sightlines throughout the gallery experience, elegant mounts, and dramatic lighting. It's possible that as my ideas develop further, I may be able to collapse two sections into one. Ideally, I'd like to have three focused sections if possible.

It should be explicitly noted that efforts were made to include objects from five major time periods: Ancient, Medieval, Early Modern, Modern, Contemporary, across Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America. The bulk of the objects are Ancient, Early Modern, and Modern, from the Harvard Art Museums (HAM) and Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology (PMAE). It was challenging to access collection information on the Museum of the Ancient Near East's website and I had to scour their Facebook page to find two objects. Next steps would include deeper object research as well as building the conceptual framework. Finally, it may be instructive to connect with Harvard curators to discuss additional objects for consideration to strengthen ideas and/or shade in thematic sections with more contemporary art, for example.

WORKING CHECKLIST 

These objects are divided into thematic sections. What information I was able to gather is included with a thumbnail of each object. Further research will determine what the object names are in their community of origin, privileging the terms in the native language, with English to follow in brackets. Apologies in advance for images that weren't aligning on the left margin. I'm still figuring out the formatting of this blog. 

Power

Chief's stool with supporting female figure, 19th century (tbd)

Kanioka carver

South Central Democratic Republic of the Congo, Africa

Wood

20 h. inches

17-41-50/B1568 (PMAE)

The pattern on her hair is gorgeously rendered. Red pigment was applied to the interstices of the incised hair, which warrants further research and explication. This stunning sculpture was purchased from a well-known London-based dealer, William O. Oldman. Timeframe for this piece is tbd. It is interesting that a woman is holding up the sitter, presumably a male chief, giving him power. 

Turtle pillow, 19th/20th century

Western New Guinea (Irian Jaya)

Wood, charcoal, seed

26 3/8 × 8 9/16 × 5 1/8 in.

973-24-70/5352 (PMAE)

While headrests in Central and Southern Africa are often associated with divination and dreaming,  in the Pacific, including Melanesia, they have been used for practical purposes: to protect one's elaborate hairdo from being flattened during sleep, and to keep dust away. As well, the head is considered sacred and should not be touched. I was drawn to this carved pillow for its elaborately incised surface, and the form itself. Is there a significance of turtles in this West New Guinea community? What is this pattern symbolic of? Was this a ceremonial pillow, or used nightly during sleep? It is especially intriguing to think of a hard wooden surface as a pillow, using a soft pillow myself. 

Portraiture

Portrait of Pachamama (Earth mother)

Bridge-and-spout bottle, 100BC-800AD

Nazca artist, Peru

Ceramic and paint

3 15/16 x 5 1/8 in.

986-26-30/11512 (PMAE)

I was elated to find this Nazca polychrome, dome-shaped portrait vessel in the PMAE online collection. The face of Pachamama is painted. She is considered the Mother earth and force of all things. An irrigated field comprises the pattern in her hair. Stunning and powerful. 

Figure, 1820s

Haida artist

Pacific Northwest Coast, probably Southeastern Alaska

Wood, paint, and human hair

18 x 5 1/2 x 4 in.

99-12-10/53094 (PMAE)

This female figurine is the portrait likeness of Djilakons, the Haida noble woman who gave birth to the Eagle Clan. This figure is exceedingly rare, and incorporates human hair. She joins a group of about 20 objects (figurines and masks) across the globe made by the same Haida maker between 1820-1840 which were sold to European and Euro-American mariners as the finest tourist items, not as ceremonial objects. This figurine makes for a fascinating conversation about tourist art and how Indigenous artists set a market economy in motion as ships docked in Northwest Coast harbors for one-four years at a time, acquiring enough sea otter furs to take to Canton, China for entrepreneurial activity and trade in the early nineteenth century.

Style

Glenn Ligon (b. 1960)

Self-portrait at Eleven Years Old, 2004

Print

36 x 30 inches

Cotton base sheet with stenciled pulp painting

M26683

From HAM's collection page,  "Self-Portrait at Eleven Years Old is another example of Glenn Ligon using images and words of his cultural heroes to explore his own identity. The paper-pulp print depicts Stevie Wonder as pictured on his 1977 compilation album, "Looking Back." The musician looks very 1970s chic--wearing dark aviator glasses, a short, tight afro, and a wide-collared nylon shirt. Light sparkles from the corner of his glasses."

For object research and the possible label for this print, I would plan to focus on the political statement of agency and empowerment that Afros meant for some Black people wearing them in the 1970s. I might also consider something about the significance of this print being in black and white. Could this be more powerful in the Portrait section? 

Standing Buddha Shakyamuni in Varada-mudra, 8th-10th century

Nepalese artist, South Asia

Gilt bronze; copper alloy with traces of mercury amalgam gilding, cold gilding, and, black pigment, perhaps lacquer, in the hair

10 7/16 x 4 3/4 x 3 7/8 in.

2011.2 (HAM)

Brief object research reveals that youthful Buddhas were depicted with their hair arranged in wavy curls, and always with a topknot as if crowned with a royal flower garland. Further research would be necessary to discuss this hairstyle, and to discuss the likelihood of this hairstyle being in association with the hairstyle of Apollo in Roman statues. 

Painted stela of Akhenatan, 18th dynasty reign of Akhenatan (1549/1550 to 1292 BC) (detail)

Egypt

Limestone and pigment

Dimensions unknown

1902.17.32 (HMANE)

Egyptian women rulers, leaders, and those connected to royal families from this timeperiod had long hair threaded with gold tubes held in place with headbands and hairpins. Wigs and extensions were also used. 

Long-necked bottle, 12-13th century

Iranian artist, Middle East

Fritware with overglaze painted luster decoration

13 1/8 x 8 3/8 in.

1934.43 (HAM)

This is the one of the only objects I could find from the Medieval period, incorporating imagery of human hair in the online museum collections. It is a portrait vase, and could of course appear in the portrait section, but looking at the hair through the lens of style forces our audience to also engage with the wonderful form of the vessel. 

Four Kneeling, Female Court Musicians with Long Hair Arranged in Two Buns

Tang dynasty, 618-907 (7th century)

Chinese artist

Earthenware

7 1/16 × 4 3/4 × 4 1/2 in. each (approx.)

2003.204 (HAM)

Story

 

Perseus slaying Medusa sculpture, after 1690

Giovanni Battista Foggini, Italian (1652 - 1725) 

Bronze

15 11/16 x 15 3/8 x 9 7/16 in.

1949.67.A (HAM)

This medallion tells the story of the Medusa, who in Greek mythology was one of three Gorgon sisters. She is generally described as a winged female who has living venomous snakes for hair, and anyone who looked in her was turned to stone. Poseidon raped Medusa, and Perseus beheaded her. Perseus used her head, which retained its ability to turn onlookers to stone, as a weapon until he gave it to the goddess Athena who placed it on her shield. Her image (her head with snakes and wings) often appeared in classical antiquity as an evil-averting device. 

Come Together

Maid Dressing a Courtesan's Hair, from the series Five in a Set for Weddings, Edo period, 1615-1868  

Ryūryūkyo Shinsai, Japanese (1764 - 1820) 

Ukiyo-e woodblock-printed "surimono"; ink, color, metallic pigment and embossing on paper

8 5/16 x 7 3/16 in

1933.4.850 (HAM)

The objects in this section show people coming together in the process of doing someone's hair, and allows us to talk about how hair bonds people universally across time and space. I love the mix of two-dimensional art in this section, as well as the time span of 1730 through 1974. 

Naomi fixing Colette's hair, Boston, 1974 (printed 1990-91)

Nan Goldin (b. 1953)

Gelatin silver print

18 11/16 x 12 5/8 in.

2011.216 (HAM)

(apologies the image is so small; downloads were not permitted so this is a screenshot and I can't manage to enlarge it)

I imagine that Naomi and Colette, the subjects in Nan Goldin's picture, are friends but further research is needed. Nan Goldin's work is often centered on people in the transgender community, of which Naomi and Colette belong, which enables me to talk about gendered roles through their hair.  

Maharao Durjan Sal of Kota Plaiting Krishna's Hair, 1730

Attributed to the Kota Master

Kota, Rajasthan, India

Opaque watercolor and gold on paper

13 7/8 x 11 13/16 in.

1995.95 (HAM)