1994
Signed, dated, and numbered, verso
Gelatin silver print (Edition of 25)
14 x 11 inches, sheet
Contact gallery for price.
Much of Lorna Simpson’s work incorporates images of hair along with short, vague texts in order to comment on issues of race. This artwork represents the artist’s interest in representations of gender. Kobena Mercer writes: “Within racism’s bipolar codification of human values, black people’s hair has been historically devalued as the most visible sign of blackness, second only to skin.” [“Black Hair/Style Politics,” Out There: Marginalization and Contemporary Cultures (New York City: The New Museum of Contemporary Art, 1990), p. 249] By employing pubic hair—which is even coarser than the head hair she normally uses—in a hierarchical, but anatomically correct arrangement, accompanied by humorous text (“upper case wig/lower case wig”), Simpson makes an ironic commentary about race and gender.
Work by Lorna Simpson (b. 1960)