A Manifesto of Hair

Ho Tam A Manifesto of Hair

The Manhattan Chinatown in the displaced homeland of the Lenapehoking (now known as New York City) is one of the oldest and largest of its kind for the diasporic Chinese and Southeast Asian population in the world. The densely populated neighbourhood also houses over one hundred barbershops and hair salons. These business establishments serves and profits from the locals as well as visitors from outside, often operating in long hours on cut throat prices. Only outnumbered by the food sector (restaurants and grocery stores), the barbershops and salons, with their high concentration, reflects the importance of hair and appearance in the immigrant community.

A Manifesto of Hair is a study of the significance of hair and hair cutting through looking at these business establishments in the mega-metropolis. The photographs (24” x 20” each, taken 2014 and printed 2023) depicts a selection of the colourful architecture, activities and individuals that occupy these spaces. Under the artist’s emphatic eyes, the camera picks up on the overlooked details and unfolds daily moments in this city within a city. Highlighting the working class within the marginalized community, the photographs explore how everyday individuals negotiate their identity in the larger social context, adapting to the norms while reinventing their lives. On one hand, the barbershops function as a refuge of self care and comfort. On the other hand, they evoke questions on the conformity under homogenized standard of beauty and societal expectation. In such a way, A Manifesto of Hair explores the relationships among race, class and commerce through looking at the care of hair.

Ho Tam makes art with a democratized approach and works across different disciplines. The topics of self reflection, visibility and representation are some of the common themes in his work. During his stay in New York from 1996 to 2003, Tam was an acute observer and an active participant — both an insider and outsider. He tirelessly documented the surroundings with photography and video in the seven years. The hair culture in the Manhattan Chinatown is one of his longtime focus of attention.

In additional to the newly produced prints, the exhibition A Manifesto of Hair will also include Tam’s two previous work of the same subject matter - Hair Cuts (video, 7 min, 1999) and Haircut 100 (artist’s book, 60 pages, 2014).