Welcome to Mechanics of Conformity at Third Space

Two-day event
26.10-27.10.2017, 18:30-21:30 Tarkk’ampujankatu 18 Helsinki

Our project/event investigates the excess, absence, cutting, covering, growing, coloring and grooming of hair as both the materialization of individuality and of conformity.

As an artistic medium and mediator of meaning, hair can communicate a sense of self and otherness. In this sense, it can either uphold or upset conventional distinctions between divisions of gender, race, region and religion. From these issues, hair epitomises a global yet subjective social and personal significance.

Within this two-day collaboration, five women explore concepts of identity, relationships, perceptions and otherness through hair. In some cases, there is a very complex relationship between a woman and her hair. The protein filaments that sprout from our scalps somehow become emblematic of our identity, as if vital secrets were wrapped in every strand. We spend valuable time and money primping our hair (coiffures) as if they had the uncanny ability to transmit messages to strangers.

Ask a woman about her hair, and she just might tell you the story of her life. Ask a whole bunch of women about their hair, and you could get a history of the world.

How do they look at us?
How do we look at ourselves?
How do the others look at each other?

Catalysti artists are Rosamaria Bolom, Edwina Goldstone, Martina Mi�o Perez, Sepideh Rahaa and Arlene Tucker. This collaboration has been only possible with support of Catalysti, {RUNO – KOE} – Experimental Poetry Room, Third Space, Taike and the City of Helsinki.