Surrey Art Gallery's un/tangling, un/covering, un/doing braids stories and cultures together
Spanning sculpture to photography, exhibition focuses on hair in works by 10 BIPOC artists from across Canada
Baljit Singh’s Coming Home, 35mm negative print, 2022, as part of un/tangling, un/covering, un/doing at Surrey Art Gallery. In collaboration with NorBlack NorWhite.
Surrey Art Gallery presents un/tangling, un/covering, un/doing to March 17
AS A SIKH South Asian Canadian, Suvi Bains says that hair was an integral part of her upbringing. Her mother braided and cared for her long, dark hair every day until she was 11 years old as part of her family’s tradition and faith practices. However, her experiences growing up on Abbotsford’s east side were not reflected in mainstream society. The Surrey Art Gallery associate curator never saw herself depicted as a brown girl wanting to fit in. And so she took to drastic measures.
“I decided to cut my hair in Grade 6 in response to the forces of assimilation that had their own standards of beauty and conformity,” Bains says in an interview with Stir. “The act of cutting removed familial memories of oiling, braiding, and taking care of my long black hair.”
Bains is the curator of un/tangling, un/covering, un/doing, an ambitious new exhibition at the Surrey Art Gallery. Spanning sculpture, painting, photography, drawing, poetry, and video, the show features works by 10 artists from across Canada who identify as BIPOC, including Audie Murray, Rebecca Bair, Wally Dion, Clare Yow, Sharon Norwood, Sarindar Dhaliwal, Karin Jones, Baljit Singh, Kiranjot Kaur, and Natasha Kianipour. Black Arts Centre is the community partner for the exhibition and will feature a reading nook for all ages titled New Growths.
There are other personal connections to hair that motivated Bains to pursue the material as an exhibition theme.
“I recall the stories my grandfather shared when he first arrived in Vancouver in 1960, where, as a turbaned Sikh man, he encountered discrimination, name calling, and times when his personal safety was at stake,” Bains says. “These experiences informed a body of work that I photographed in 2015 titled Kesh (unshorn hair) exhibited at The Reach Gallery. It included six portraits and a digital video of three Sikh men exposing an aspect of their faith that was both intensely private and public-facing. The portraits captured the intimate process of untying, grooming, retying, and wrapping of their kesh. My goal was to inspire dialogue around these dualities and challenge prejudiced ideas about the Sikh community in Abbotsford.”
Stoking discussion is very much part of the goal of un/tangling, un/covering, un/doing.
“My hope is that visitors reflect on the labour involved in taking care of hair and how each strand evokes a story, memory, or emotion,” Bains says. “As hair passes through the many hands that nurture its health and beauty, acts of intimacy can harmonize an individual’s reclamation of hair. In this exhibit, stories are shaped and shared as a collective experience between the artist and the viewer. Here, hair becomes a vessel that carries the weight of narratives and the spirit of community.
“I wanted the title to share the complexities of hair within many cultures,” she adds. “Un/tangling, un/covering, un/doing rests within the unravelling of stories and experiences that the artists present. I was inspired to challenge the norms in society that dictate how hair is tied to tradition, ritual, and practice. The ‘un’ in the title provokes the visitor to reflect on the acts of resistance, activism, and to untangle, uncover, and undo the woven threads of what the exhibit symbolizes.”
Rebecca Bair’s Untitled (Shadows) 2022, Plexiglas-mounted inkjet print.
For multidisciplinary artist Rebecca Bair, hair is what she calls a site for cultural care.
“It belongs at the intersection of subjectivity and collectivity,” Bair says in an interview with Stir. “It is codified by concerns of profound expertise and trust. My hair and its many variations of curls are the translation of those who came before me. I care for my hair religiously—deep conditioning to maintain its bounce and shine on a weekly basis. This process takes a large amount of time, effort, and consideration as my hair is often needing something different to achieve the desired results. Consequently, as my work considers new and expansive forms of Black representation, I use hair as a tool to both point directly to myself and away from the Black monolith trope, but also towards a cultural codification which recognizes that the language needed to understand the work is not always available.”
Bair has three works in the show, including Untitled (Shadows), a Plexiglas mounted inkjet print.
“It takes on an approach to photography that you can see in my work broadly, but specifically in the pieces I have included in this show,” Bair explains. “I create in a space of abstraction, non-figuration or obstruction as a means of mediating visibility and denying easy or direct access to the Black body. To do so, my research is about the Black body in relation to the sun—Blackness and my ancestry as the register of being adored by its rays.
“My portrayal of Blackness is then of light and shadow—that which you cannot hold,” Bair continues. “This strategy of enabling the shadow is particularly important when it comes to my hair because of personal experiences and all too common experiences of a stranger reaching to touch without consent. The shadow functions as a trace because it suggests presence, absence, and distance all at once.”
Clare Yow, Saffron coloured sons (detail), 2023, Giclee print (2).jpg
Also in the show is Baljit Singh's Coming Home, a 35mm negative print in a collaborative fashion shoot with NorBlack NorWhite, an Indo-Canadian apparel brand. It depicts two young South Asian women, one braiding the other’s thick, long hair.
“For Baljit, Coming Home embarks on a visual exploration of the profound connection between Punjab and its people, bridging the gap between generations and fostering a collective understanding of their shared heritage,” Bains says. “The spirit of Punjab is a pervasive force that shapes the identity, movement, art, language, and behaviour of Punjabis across the globe. The series reflects Singh’s commitment to showcasing the diversity and the importance of hair within their community.
Elsewhere, Wally Dion’s Red Prairie Braids, a photogravure on chine collé paper, shows the back of a person’s head, with a middle part and tight braids on each side.
“For the artist, braids represent strength, culture, and spirituality,” Bains says. “Combing and braiding hair implies care, companionship, and skill. Hair has long been a battleground for the church and settler power structures. In this way, hair length and braiding have become acts of resistance for Indigenous people.”
Clare Yow’s Saffron Coloured Sons is a giclée print of braids adorned with yellow-green petals at the bottom of two strands tied together. The exhibition also features three digital videos that speak to the themes of Indigenous, Black, and South Asian storytelling with hair.
The gallery has developed an invitation titled Hair Care, through which visitors are encouraged to share a memory or story about hair through writing or drawing.
On February 9, the facility is hosting its winter opening of all of its seasonal exhibitions, including un/tangling, un/covering, un/doing, Art by Surrey Elementary School Students, and Josh Hite: A Vista. Starting at 6:30 pm, it begins with a panel discussion with Bair, Dion, and Yow, moderated by Bains. A poetry performance by Natasha Kianipour and a reception follow.
On February 21, in celebration of Black History Month and in partnership with the Black Arts Centre, is a film screening of Spike Lee’s School Daze. A conversation between Centre curator Olumoroti (Moroti) Soji-George and Bains will follow on the topics of hair presented in the film.
And on March 2, there’s an artist’s conversation and screening of Roots Of Love. Told through the perspective of six Sikh men ranging in age from 14 to 86, the film documents the changing significance of hair and the turban among Sikhs in India. The film screening will be followed by a conversation between director Harjant Gill and exhibiting artist Kiranjot Kaur, moderated by Bains. The film is in Punjabi and English with subtitles.
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