JESSICA Foli’s interactive installation, Public Space Goes Digital: Hair Confession, is sure to generate interest.
“Hair is something that is part of our everyday lives whether you are male or female. This work was inspired by the various responses I have received about my hair. The way people respond to my hair varies – some people love it, and some people look at me strangely. Then this made me think that there must be other people with similar stories to tell,” Foli explains.
Foli’s latest exhibition is an interactive venture about a regular issue that we all relate to – hair. The idea behind her exhibition is to enlighten and encourage acceptance in one’s self, through both an online portal and physical portal – both of which are public.
By being shared with the public, these issues take on a different meaning and the complexities of self-awareness are shared.
She has taken the traditional gallery space into the digital realm, expanding its reach, and changing its purpose, by creating an online platform for the exhibition – Twitter and a website – which can be seen as the “third” exhibition space, the other two being held at the Wits Art Museum (WAM).
The exhibition comprises a confessions wall, which is made up of canvas frames converted into light boxes. The canvases light up only when people get closer to the confession wall.
The idea is that as people confess their hair issues, through the online platforms, these will be added to the wall, and the wall will grow over time, and perhaps its meaning will change.
The exhibition opened at WAM yesterday, and will continue to expand as the public interacts with it, as Foli says: “The idea behind Hair Confessions is to encourage people to share stories and experiences (both good and bad) that they have had with their hair. The idea is that people will share their hair confession on Twitter via my Twitter page: @HairStoriesZA using #hairstoriesZA.
“They can also share their confession via my website, jessf.see.me/. As people share their hair confessions they will be added to the hair confessions wall. This will be done on a weekly basis, depending on the number of confessions received.” – Arts writer