Grow It, Show It!: A Look at Hair from Diane Arbus to TikTok Museum Folkwang

Hair has always been used to send political messages and signal personal convictions. A medium of both public representation and intimacy, hair marks profound social shifts, reflects changing ideas, and can become a tool of transformation and self- empowerment. Hair serves as a (sub)cultural code and symbol of political power and emancipatory liberation; it is an object of politics of the body and queer discourses.

Grow It, Show It! is the first-ever large-scale photography exhibition in Germany that is all about hair. Historic and contemporary photographs, videos, and film clips show body hair or its absence and shed light on it from diverse cultural, formal-aesthetic, and media angles. The catalogue combines a rich selection of pictures―including fine art photographs and imagery from fashion and social media―with an artist contribution and ten interdisciplinary essays from art history and cultural studies to shed light on the manifold aspects of hair, with a focus on the political, religious, and social dimensions that manifest themselves in fine art, fashion, and advertising photography. With essays by the curators Miriam Bettin and Thomas Seelig as well as Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju, Shahram Khosravi, Alma Kittner, Annekathrin Kohout, Johanna Kuroczik, Helga Ludtke, Adebayo Quadry-Adekanbi, Jorg Scheller, Bernd Stiegler, and Lori L. Tharps.

Artists
Hoda Afshar, Diane Arbus, Juan Pablo Echeverri, Samuel Fosso, Pippa Garner, Nan Goldin, Florence Henri, Peter Hujar, Herlinde Koelbl, Zoe Leonard, Ana Mendieta, Helmut Newton, Satomi Nihongi, Ulrike Ottinger, Ringl&Pitt, Roxana Rios, Thomas Ruff, Wolfgang Tillmans, and more.