Summary

Good Hair Day curated by Luisa Tora explores urban narratives around hair. Featuring artists Bai Buliruarua, Māia Piata Rose Week, Nââwié Tutugoro, Karlin Morrison Raju and Peter Wing Seeto. 

The cultural significance of hair in the Moana transcends our urban narratives in multi-layered ways and connects us to one another. 

As Moana peoples, our hair and multiple hairstyles tell stories, assert identities, and empower the avant-garde perspectives in our art making and social visibility. 

This gathering of artists draws on the late Dr Teresia Teaiwa’s call to “build our own archives” to store and share these unique stories and perspectives. 

In the face of code-switching and assimilation, we see the rise of the ‘curly girl’ routine, the premiering of The Polynesian Panthers TV series, and Solange Knowles’ ‘Don’t Touch My Hair’ as mainstream expressions of pride surrounding the sacredness of our curly crowns. Dialogue here prioritises hair sovereignty and the broader cultural and spiritual issues surrounding it.  

Good Hair Day concepts alternate across photography, embroidery, illustration, and sculpture. This exhibition will explore urban narratives of hair in our culture and in our day- to-day experiences as diaspora. These offerings preserve and legitimize these hair revolutions as well as our presence and lineage. 

What significance does hair have in your culture? 

What does your hair mean to you? 

Has your relationship with your hair evolved? 

Exhibition Details

Good Hair Day is on now until Saturday 23 September, 2023.