Text By Lilly Skipper: Situated within a converted hair salon, one could contemplate the near-identical word ‘saloon’; an interplay channeling the becoming of HAIR as a dynamic, hybrid site — one that retains the essence of aesthetic labour in its transition from salon to gallery. The word ‘saloon’ — one of its many meanings translating to “reception room” — carries nuanced connotations of gathering and exchange. Filtered through the lens of the gallery’s transformation, artworks become less bound by etiquette and more open to interruption, “shedding their glamour” (1). Hybrid materials meet an indeterminate fate, fabricated by each artist, and like momentary acquaintances, provoke fleeting, autonomous encounters. Through the coherent use of garments, each artist’s ‘apparel’ curates a collective attire of works — polite, yet informal. No appointment necessary, viewers engage with coexisting forms as passing “flashes,” rendered as an “assortment” that softens into an overarching “appearance”.
