Combing Hair (2016)
3-screen video installation
Format: HD 422, 1080p
Duration three screens: 06:00 min/04:50/03:37/06:09 (loop)

Hair as metaphor, movement and gesture, has been a recurring theme in the history of art. It is a theme Charlotte Thiis-Evensen deals with in several works. In earlier pieces like the film Moment of Truth (2004), the video works Mother and Daughter (2013) and Untitled (2013), hair is used as a device to problematize the idea of freedom in relation to women. For the exhibition at the Vigeland museum, Thiis-Evensen has made a three-screen work titled Combing Hair. The work is based on the painting A Medieval Scene (1865) by Edgar Degas (1834-1917), where hair becomes a protecting veil over a rape victim lying on the battle field. As part of the exhibition, Thiis-Evensen has chosen sculptures and drawings by Gustav Vigeland to be shown together with Combing Hair. The works are from an early phase of Vigeland’s career, and they have in common that they, in addition to portraying female protagonists, express something vulnerable and fragile. Thiis-Evensen has chosen pieces where hair emerges as a protection, as in the sketch Hell, but also sculptures where hair expresses freedom and vitality, as in Ecstasy (1898).

Supported by Fritt Ord, Billedkunstnernes Vederlagsfond and Kulturrådet Arts Council.

Shown at Vigeland Museum 30. September 2016 - 22. January 2017.

Texts: "Combing Hair" by Guri Skuggen.