The motive of hair used in the exhibition comes from the personal experience of the artist herself and indicates the intimacy of the act, and also the victim’s vulnerability and insecurity. The viewer sees videos of how the artist cuts the hair of her mother and father. Here the cutting of the hair is like a communication between people, a bodily ritual, where two sides take a part where the trust and closeness between them becomes important. The habit of letting a family member cut ones hair has been in the artist’s family for many generations. Here the question is not about superstition, but just a failure to let a stranger touch ones hair. Murka says that the emotional atmosphere that comes with this ritual is a good indicator for the entire relationship and gives the possibility to work through the relations. The artist finds that the ritual of taking care of ones body that belongs to the private sphere of a person has today been turned into a part of the beauty industry and shows no interest towards close relationships.
The third screen window that belongs to the same video projection and the paintings and installations added to it, shows what a strange objective meaning potential hair has: hair is a important and unavoidable signal of sexuality and attraction, part of identity and the securer of the “me” of a person and will bleed empty of that meaning as soon as it is separated from the body. They will become just garbage, but cut off hair can also be repulsive and make ground for black magic.
Ellu Maar
March 2010