Faisal Abdu'Allah, Hairtrait Jordan, 2022, Hair and acrylic on birch veneer plywood, 101.6 x 127 cm (40 x 50 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Faisal Abdu'Allah, Hairtrait Jordan, 2022 (Detail), Hair and acrylic on birch veneer plywood, 101.6 x 127 cm (40 x 50 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Faisal Abdu'Allah, Hairtrait Zion, 2022, Hair and acrylic on birch veneer plywood, 101.6 x 127 cm (40 x 50 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Faisal Abdu'Allah, Hairtrait Zion, 2022 (Detail), Hair and acrylic on birch veneer plywood, 101.6 x 127 cm (40 x 50 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Installation view, Scene VII: Hair
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Installation view, Scene VII: Hair
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Malcolm Bradley, String ghosts, 2024, Hydrographic print on XPS foam insulation, 60 x 80 cm (23 5/8 x 31 1/2 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Malcolm Bradley, String ghosts, 2024 (Detail), Hydrographic print on XPS foam insulation, 60 x 80 cm (23 5/8 x 31 1/2 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Malcolm Bradley, Keratin, 2024, Hydrographic print on XPS foam insulation, 80 x 60 cm (31 1/2 x 23 5/8 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Malcolm Bradley, Keratin, 2024 (Detail), Hydrographic print on XPS foam insulation, 80 x 60 cm (31 1/2 x 23 5/8 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Installation view, Scene VII: Hair
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Malcolm Bradley, Beam, 2024, Hydrographic print on XPS foam insulation, 60 x 44 cm (23 5/8 x 17 3/8 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Malcolm Bradley, Beam, 2024, (Detail) Hydrographic print on XPS foam insulation, 60 x 44 cm (23 5/8 x 17 3/8 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Malcolm Bradley, Sick Building, Out of Body (heart), 2024, Hydrographic print on XPS foam insulation, 20 x 20 cm (7 7/8 x 7 7/8 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Malcolm Bradley, Sick Building, Out of Body (heart), 2024 (Detail), Hydrographic print on XPS foam insulation, 20 x 20 cm (7 7/8 x 7 7/8 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Malcolm Bradley, Sick Building, Out of Body (eye), 2024, Hydrographic print on XPS foam insulation, 26 x 27 cm (10 1/4 x 10 5/8 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Malcolm Bradley, Sick Building, Out of Body (eye), 2024 (Detail), Hydrographic print on XPS foam insulation, 26 x 27 cm (10 1/4 x 10 5/8 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Malcolm Bradley, Sick Building, Out of Body (epigastrium I, 2024, Hydrographic print on XPS foam insulation, 20 x 24 cm (7 7/8 x 9 1/2 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Malcolm Bradley, Sick Building, Out of Body (epigastrium I), 2024 (Detail), Hydrographic print on XPS foam insulation, 20 x 24 cm (7 7/8 x 9 1/2 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Malcolm Bradley, Sick Building, Out of Body (forehead), 2024, Hydrographic print on XPS foam insulation, 19 x 20 cm (7 1/2 x 7 7/8 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Malcolm Bradley, Sick Building, Out of Body (forehead), 2024 (Detail), Hydrographic print on XPS foam insulation, 19 x 20 cm (7 1/2 x 7 7/8 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Leo Costelloe, Closer to God, 2024, Brilliant white cut diamonds, sterling silver and honey auburn synthetic weft, 49 x 36 x 38 cm (19 1/4 x 14 1/8 x 15 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Leo Costelloe, Closer to God, 2024 (Detail), Brilliant white cut diamonds, sterling silver and honey auburn synthetic weft, 49 x 36 x 38 cm (19 1/4 x 14 1/8 x 15 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Installation view, Scene VII: Hair
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Natalia González Martín, She Showed Great Love, 2024, Oil on panel, 30 x 20 cm (11 3/4 x 7 7/8 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Natalia González Martín, She Showed Great Love, 2024 (Detail), Oil on panel, 30 x 20 cm (11 3/4 x 7 7/8 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Installation view, Scene VII: Hair
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Natalia González Martín, Miraculous Abundance, 2024, Oil on panel, 30 x 40 cm (11 3/4 x 15 3/4 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Natalia González Martín, Miraculous Abundance, 2024 (Detail), Oil on panel, 30 x 40 cm (11 3/4 x 15 3/4 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Natalia González Martín, Who would call her name until she turns?, 2024, Oil on panel, 60 x 20 cm (23 5/8 x 7 7/8 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Natalia González Martín, Who would call her name until she turns?, 2024 (Detail), Oil on panel, 60 x 20 cm (23 5/8 x 7 7/8 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Fiza Khatri, 786, 2022, Oil on canvas, 30.5 x 25.4 cm (12 x 10 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Fiza Khatri, 786, 2022 (Detail), Oil on canvas, 30.5 x 25.4 cm (12 x 10 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Fiza Khatri, Untitled, 2024, Watercolour on paper, 40.6 x 31.8 cm (16 x 12 1/2 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Fiza Khatri, Untitled, 2024 (Detail), Watercolour on paper, 40.6 x 31.8 cm (16 x 12 1/2 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Installation view, Scene VII: Hair
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Fiza Khatri, Untitled, 2024, Watercolour and pen on paper, 40.6 x 31.8 cm (16 x 12 1/2 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Fiza Khatri, Untitled, 2024 (Detail), Watercolour and pen on paper, 40.6 x 31.8 cm (16 x 12 1/2 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Sarah Miska, Grey Competition Buns, 2024, Acrylic on canvas, 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Sarah Miska, Grey Competition Buns, 2024 (Detail), Acrylic on canvas, 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Sarah Miska, Dressage Braided Bun, 2024, Acrylic on canvas, 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Sarah Miska, Dressage Braided Bun, 2024 (Detail), Acrylic on canvas, 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 in)
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Patricia Piccinini, The Protege, 2023, Silicone, fibreglass, hair, 25 x 46 x 26 cm (9 7/8 x 18 1/8 x 10 1/4 in), Edition 6 of 6 + 2 APs
Patricia Piccinini, The Protege, 2023 (Detail), Silicone, fibreglass, hair, 25 x 46 x 26 cm (9 7/8 x 18 1/8 x 10 1/4 in), Edition 6 of 6 + 2 APs
Installation view, Scene VII: Hair
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Installation view, Scene VII: Hair
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Installation view, Scene VII: Hair
Photo: Reliant Imaging
Hair offers up numerous tributaries of signification, as it does so it radiates with the glow and lustre of presence whilst still able to induce the dry retch of the abject. It can stress and deconstruct tropes of femininity and masculinity whilst celebrating the two in their fusion; it possesses its own libidinal energy that can eroticize and fetishize its ‘host’. Hair also speaks specifically to pillars of race and the vagaries of both institutional religion and the less schematized drift of spirituality. Finally, hair – like politics and its underlying labyrinth of criss-crossing ideologies – can quickly (zoo)morph from one design to another and is easily manipulated.
The seven artists included in this show - Faisal Abdu’Allah, Malcolm Bradley, Leo Costelloe, Natalia González Martín, Fiza Khatri, Sarah Miska and Patricia Piccinini- have all made works that connect, push and untangle our ideas and ideals of hair. In so doing they question how this shared currency, nurtured by the tenets yet variegation of structures and struggles of and for identity, truth and, ultimately, love, can electrify such shifts of signification.