Liyen Chong, Andrea Daly, Isle-Marie Erl, Janet Lilo, Andrea Low, Vivian Lynn, Victoria McIntosh, Kathryn Tsui

Artefacts from the collections of: Dannevirke Gallery of History, Nelson Provincial Museum, North Otago Museum, Wellington Museum of City and Sea and Whanganui Museum

Hair has many meanings in different cultures throughout time and across the world. 

It is most commonly regarded as an artefact of the soul and relic of personal identity.  These associations give hair its potent meaning and explain its use in witchcraft, ritual, adornment and the arts. 

In contemporary Western culture, hair is our crowning glory – a frame to the face and an expression of health and beauty.  Found in sink hole, however, mixed with grey soap scum into a glob, this very same material becomes retched, dirty and dangerous. 

Crowning Glory examines these complex and sometimes contradictory meanings.

The exhibition compares historic artefacts from the Victorian-period with contemporary art by women artists that incorporate or comment on human hair.  By keeping this focus, this exhibition reveals changing attitudes to hair in a New Zealand cultural context.  It also reveals the enduring symbolism of hair as an intimately personal material that is both beautiful and vulgar at the same time.

Anna-Marie White

Curator