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A Manifesto of Hair Ho Tam March 23 to April 20, 2024 Hours: Saturday 1 to 5 PM Opening Reception: 1 to 3 PM, Saturday, March 23

Manhattan’s Chinatown, on the homeland of the displaced Lenape, is one of the world’s oldest and largest of its kind for the diasporic Chinese and Southeast Asian population. The densely populated neighbourhood houses over one hundred barbershops and hair salons, which serve locals and visitors, often operating over long hours on cutthroat prices. Outnumbered only by the food industry, the high concentration of barbershops reflect the importance of hair and appearance in the immigrant community.

 

A Manifesto of Hair by Ho Tam studies the cultural significance of and obsession with hair and haircutting by looking at these business establishments, their architecture, and the activities and individuals that occupy them. By the artist’s precise eye, the camera picks up the detailed complexity of the scenes and unfolds narratives of daily moments in the mega-metropolis. Highlighting the working class within the marginalized community, the photographs investigate how individuals negotiate their identity in a larger social context, adapting to new norms while reinventing their lives. On one hand, the salons function as a refuge of self-care and comfort, while, on the other, they evoke questions about conformity under homogenized beauty standards and societal expectations. The project is an exploration of the relationships among race, class, and commerce through a look at how hair is cared for.

 

In addition to the photographs, the exhibition will also include Tam’s two other works on the same subject: the video Hair Cuts and his artist book Haircut 100.

 

 

Capture Photography Festival Selected Exhibition

Born in Hong Kong, Ho Tam is a media/visual artist who has worked in advertising and community psychiatry. He received a BA from McMaster University and an MFA from Bard College (NY). From 1996 to 1997, he was a participant at the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. Tam has exhibited in public galleries and alternative spaces across Canada, including the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography (2001). Tam’s work was also included in The Tin Man Was A Dreamer at the Vancouver Art Gallery (2020). His experimental film/video works are in circulation including screenings at Centre Pompidou, Paris, Toronto International Film Festival, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival and the travelling exhibition Magnetic North: Canadian Experimental Video organized by the Walker Art Center, Minnesota.

 

Tam is a recipient of various grants and awards, including the Grand Marnier Video Fellowship (2003) from the Film Society of Lincoln Center (New York) and the Best Documentary Feature at Tel Aviv LGBT Film Festival. From 2004 to 2011, Tam taught in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Victoria. Ho Tam lives in Vancouver, BC. In 2011, he edited and published Frontline: Interviews with International Photo-based Artists in Beijing, China. He is currently the publisher of Hotam Press, an independent press of artist’s publications, and runs The News Room gallery/bookshop.

Ho Tam's artist book is available at Magcloud. For preview or purchase, please visit:

https://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/862514

The News Room @ Hotam Press acknowledges that we are on the unceded, occupied, ancestral and traditional homelands of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səlí"lwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.