Because Every Hair Is Different, 2005

Because Every Hair Is Different, 2005

Marlene Haring
Austria, b. 1978, active England
Offset lithographs
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of the Sir Mark Fehrs Haukohl Photography Collection
M.2021.96.19a–i
© Marlene Haring, digital image courtesy of Vargas Organisation, London

In Because Every Hair Is Different, Marlene Haring explores hair as a powerful physical marker of femininity and desirability. Beginning with the idea that long, fine, blond tresses are the quintessence of feminine beauty and pushing it to an absurd extreme, Haring transforms herself into a surrealistic creature. Her gesture, at once performance, installation, and photography, complicates the link between hair and beauty: potentially, hair is also burdensome and grotesque, demanding an endless investment of time and money.