On August 15th, 2008 I went to a Turkish barber and asked him to shave my hair. It was exactly 10 minutes after 10:00 a.m. The man had a steaming cup of coffee in his hand which he abandoned to perform his duty. With the shaving machine on my forehead he asked: “Sind Sie sicher?” (are you sure?). I said yes and nodded dramatically. Hours later, I was photographing myself to immediately communicate my new bald status to the (Facebook) world, when artist Katya Gardea Browne started chatting with me and bombarded me with questions. In this process she transformed my shaving into “art”.
Photos by Alanna Lockward
Courtesy of ArtLabour
On October 30th 2009 I talked to portions of my shaved hair contained in a silver object, in a performance conceived by me and curated by artist Katya Gardea-Browne at the vernissage of TRUESTORIES.TRUESUCCES, at 8:30 p.m. at the Freies Museum Berlin. My monologue consisted of extracts from different emails from the previous year referring to the personal crisis that culminated in the shaving of my hair. They were concerned letters from my family, protocols on the subject of the woman who translated my dissertation project from English into German and then plagiarized it, accounts of different failed projects, my feelings on the hospitalization of my teenager son in a psychiatric clinic, etc.
Photos by Maike Beissner
Courtesy of ArtLabour
On November 14th 2009, I emptied the bowl with the yellow paper bids and put the full amount of my shaved hair into it.
Photos by Amy Stafford and Alanna Lockward
Courtesy of ArtLabour
I then proceeded to read the following text:
FINAL STATEMENT
CURATORIAL HAIR A(U)CTION
This is to certify my failure as a visual artist. The process of becoming one under the curatorial adivse of artist Katya Gardea-Browne took me to places of self-knowledge for which I am eternally grateful to her. On November 13th 2009, Katya Gardea-Browne requested from me that I could no longer use her name for further developments of this performance. In that regard, it is my duty to inform you that this final statement and the performance to which you are now witness are my total responsability. After agreeing on leaving my hair into a precious silver object on top of a pedestal at the exhibition space, I did not honour this agreement. It was unbearable for me to leave my hair exposed without my presence. Every time I arrived at the exhibition space I brought it with me and put it back in the pedestal and when I left I took back home with me. Before reading the bid forms filled by motivated individuals, I would like to mention that no bids were send online. I will send this final statment to the bidders in this bowl with my apologies for not being able to give my hair to the hightest bidder. The content of the bids will be reproduced online on the blog of the exhibition. With this statement the Curatorial Hair A(u)ction is closed. There will not be further events with this title. The documentation of this performance and further research and actions on the subject of my own identity in relation to my hair will be part of a publication which is already growing inside of me with generous determination. The author Natasha Kelly will now return parts of my failed-auctioned hair by means of brading it back to my current hair, making them a new extension of and on myself, both as a symbol of my failure to become a visual artist and as a reminder of the challenges involved in gaining awareness on my own identity as a Woman of Color in Germany.
Photos by Verena Rodatus
Courtesy of ArtLabour
This is the content of the 7 bids made on my curatorial hair:
Design by Amy Stafford
1. A. Goldberg: “Ausdruckstark”.
2. EGGLE: 10 LTL
3. Pesky Ho. 1 Euro. “Someone else should get it”.
4. Libertad. 10 Euros. “¡Qué chido!”
5. Todd Brown. 2 Cents. “Ohne Kommentar”.
6. Dylan Sometimes. “One American Dollar Piece (1979). The only year a woman was featured on an American coin. Susan B. Anthony”.
7. Jojo. 5 Euros. “Ja, ja. Stylisch!”.
