Food in hair sounds just as disturbing as hair in food, which is why the two are typically kept apart. But the newest student exhibit in the Fine Art Buildings might make you think twice about the hair in your soup.
California State University, Long Beach sculpture art graduate student Kim Morris and photography graduate Shannon Leith collaborated in a video gallery showcasing internal and external “beauty processes.”
Amplified sounds of a hair dryer and mastication enticed viewers’ hearing into the gallery. Scenes in the video switched between following Morris’ hair grooming routine and Leith’s food preparation routine.
“The two are synonymous with your being, there is internal health and external health,” Morris said. “We were interested in looking at how the two work together… not necessarily looking at the division between the two but instead how they work together.”
The pair decided to join forces after taking an art criticism class together, in which Leith was working with food and Morris was working with hair. In their first video gallery, “Garnish,” the duo described the idea of combining their different bodies of art as an idea that originated from playful humor.
“We thought it would be funny to do a show together with food and hair because of how historically gross that is,” Leith said. “It kind of started as a joke but once we finished the project we discovered that there was actually a substance there.”
As public awareness in health and beauty rises, Morris and Leith describe the “preparation and consumption of food and the washing and grooming of hair both ritualistic and labor intensive practices.”
Morris explored the contradiction between following a fad versus following one’s own unique preference when it came to the beauty ritual individuals come to choose.
“In a lot of ways [the video gallery] is a commentary on the stresses that you put your hair through to achieve a certain goal for whatever social reasons, political reasons or personal reasons,” Morris said. “There’s this notion of ‘I’m doing this to mainstream myself into society’ but then there’s a line of ‘I like doing this because I like the way my hair looks.’”
Leith directed attention towards the choices regarding food selection, describing her artwork to be relevant with the public’s awareness of what goes into their body.
“[Society] has become more aware of what is in our food but then we’re such a fast paced culture that people are pretty unaware of what they’re putting in their mouth.” Leith said.”…When you’re getting the salad with the Italian dressing you’re expecting that it’s going to be healthy but there’s all these [ingredients] in there that you can’t even pronounce.”
Altogether the duo strives for no particular message within their video gallery. Morris and Leith leave it up to visitors to come away with their own distinct message or idea.
“It is more about [the audience] enjoying the work, and if it makes [viewers] think then we have done our job” said Morris.
The School of Art displays student artist’s work in the Fine Arts Building 2-4, with new exhibits weekly. Visitors can experience the Garnish gallery Tuesday and Thursday from noon to 5 p.m. and Wednesday from noon to 7 p.m.