Lorna Simpson: Wigs
Lorna Simpsons work focuses on the history of African American hairstyles and conventions of beauty. The art piece I am specifically inspired by is called Wigs which is a collection of hair pieces, from Afros, to blond hair which have been photographed and printed onto felt, giving the final piece a hair-like texture itself, relating it back to the focus of the work. Within this piece, she focuses on the stigma against black hairstyles and using the hair pieces themselves to reclaim natural hair back, after its suppression by society and the media. Her work has been considered as referring to the body without showing it, as if the images were inferred portraits, using hair to symbolize people.
Simpson comments on her work saying “For me, the specter of race looms so large because this is a culture where using the black figure takes on very particular meanings, even stereotypes,” Simpson has said. “But, if I were a white artist using Caucasian models, then the work would be read as completely universalist. It would be construed differently. I try to get viewers to realize … that it is all a matter of surfaces and façades.” Her work is obviously strongly focusing on race and how hair has identified the black community throughout the years, with society pushing them to do their hair a certain way so that they fit in. However, she obviously wants to reclaim black natural hair so people can wear their hair as they want to.
Simpson’s interest in wigs in her visual work also relates back to why I want to photograph wigs and possibly people wearing wigs, because of their potential to mask an individual, to mould someones looks and identity, by the changing of looks. Using the images alone, alongside a small amount of writing, Simpson emphasizes the idea of self-image and how we are so concerned with how we look, and how we use our accessories to change our appearance. Simpsons work displays these wigs unattached from the body, which exposes the fact that hair is ‘alterable and removable’, and can be used to change what is natural and desirable on the human body, an accessory for appearance change.
Relating Simpsons work back to mine, it is obvious that her focus is on race and how black people have been suppressed in relation to hairstyles and how they ‘SHOULD’ wear their hair, not how they ‘WANT’ to wear their hair. It focuses on the same idea of construction and adaption of hair that I am looking into, and the fact that hair is an accessory to be used, alongside the removal of your own hair and addition of a wig to construct ones image and identity. People viewing her work start to question it, how do the things we use to decorate our body, become part of our identity? And do these perceptions, in turn, limit us or expand us?
In terms of the materiality of her final printed work, it is printed on felt to give it a hair like textural feeling. This, as a final piece, inspires my final piece (although I am far off from that at this time) as I feel as though when I finalise this project in the second module of this year, I want to incorporate the material of hair within it, whether its overlaying hair still lives and portraits together, or actually using hair within the printing process, Simpson's work inspires this thought process, looking outside the box when creating final pieces.
Simpson comments on her work saying “For me, the specter of race looms so large because this is a culture where using the black figure takes on very particular meanings, even stereotypes,” Simpson has said. “But, if I were a white artist using Caucasian models, then the work would be read as completely universalist. It would be construed differently. I try to get viewers to realize … that it is all a matter of surfaces and façades.” Her work is obviously strongly focusing on race and how hair has identified the black community throughout the years, with society pushing them to do their hair a certain way so that they fit in. However, she obviously wants to reclaim black natural hair so people can wear their hair as they want to.
Simpson’s interest in wigs in her visual work also relates back to why I want to photograph wigs and possibly people wearing wigs, because of their potential to mask an individual, to mould someones looks and identity, by the changing of looks. Using the images alone, alongside a small amount of writing, Simpson emphasizes the idea of self-image and how we are so concerned with how we look, and how we use our accessories to change our appearance. Simpsons work displays these wigs unattached from the body, which exposes the fact that hair is ‘alterable and removable’, and can be used to change what is natural and desirable on the human body, an accessory for appearance change.
Relating Simpsons work back to mine, it is obvious that her focus is on race and how black people have been suppressed in relation to hairstyles and how they ‘SHOULD’ wear their hair, not how they ‘WANT’ to wear their hair. It focuses on the same idea of construction and adaption of hair that I am looking into, and the fact that hair is an accessory to be used, alongside the removal of your own hair and addition of a wig to construct ones image and identity. People viewing her work start to question it, how do the things we use to decorate our body, become part of our identity? And do these perceptions, in turn, limit us or expand us?
In terms of the materiality of her final printed work, it is printed on felt to give it a hair like textural feeling. This, as a final piece, inspires my final piece (although I am far off from that at this time) as I feel as though when I finalise this project in the second module of this year, I want to incorporate the material of hair within it, whether its overlaying hair still lives and portraits together, or actually using hair within the printing process, Simpson's work inspires this thought process, looking outside the box when creating final pieces.