Let’s Talk About Hair and Art

The objective of this paper is to critically reflect upon a cultural text in the form of a piece of mixed media abstract realism artwork titled Hair Power, made in 2020. This piece was inspired and motivated by my involvement with a World Afro Day event held on 15 September 2020. The paper draws on my personal, political, cultural, and historical rationale for making the artwork, and includes relevant background information and wider influences. I discuss the artistic process — composition, colour scheme, themes, materials— and how and why I made the painting the way I did. The paper also aims to show the intertextuality of visual art and community activism and the importance of art as a form of resistance against Westernised beauty standards and of the power of images in their ability to transport the audience in which they are intended. This paper will also seek to understand the connectivity between artists and the community, and the importance of representation within the visual arts. It will draw on my cultural heritage and African and Caribbean diasporic cultural connections. It will further seek to connect art with literary projects, working together to challenge those ideologies that do not work for Black people who choose to wear their afro hair in its natural state, so that pride is more important than hiding or changing afro hair to fit into society’s ‘norms’. Hair Power is a piece of personal and political abstract realism art that was made as a reminder that afro hair in its natural state is to be celebrated. Hair Power was also one of two pieces of artwork integrated as a symbolic gesture into my Birkbeck College “Race Law and Literature” assignment in April 2021. The assignment involved writing a creative nonfiction narrative of a historical event using the theme of everyday racism in the British education system. Hair Power marks my decision to make more political art.


World Afro Day:
World Afro Day (WAD) was founded on 15 September 2017 by London-based Michelle De Leon as a platform for celebration and much more.Enraged by a law passed on 15 September 2016, in the Southern US state of Alabama, which allowed companies to deny jobs to people with dreadlocks (also known as dreads or locs), De Leon held the first WAD on 15 September 2017 to mark a law that discriminates against afro hair.WAD has since been endorsed by The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. 1 I was inspired to make the artwork Hair Power after being invited to participate as a panel speaker at a World Afro Day event on 15 September 202o: 'Hair Today/Wear Tomorrow.'My presentation included a reading of two poems from my independently published anthology Hair Power Skin Revolution (2010). 2 Later that day, I posted a photograph of VOLUME 11 NUMBER 2 WINTER 2023 myself on Instagram, wearing a big afro, taken at Mount Pleasant Hotel gardens, in central London, where I lived/worked between 1976-1978 as a Catering Secretary.In the Instagram caption, I wrote: 'The more we challenge the stereotypes which seek to influence our lives, the more society will be forced to accept us on our own terms and that can only happen when we as Black people collectively share and confront our own fears of wearing our hair the way we want to.'

Hair Power by Nicole Moore
The artistic process: As a reference for Hair Power, I used my own afro comb 3 for the design by literally drawing around it, using the comb -a symbolic iconas a geometric measuring tool to draw/sketch in a similar way a ruler was used for the marking and positioning of the design.I then lightly sketched and interspersed the remaining images at different angles, so as to display them as a central, focused, and unified entity.I used Crayola Super Tips, a black V7 Hi-Tecpoint pen for fine lines, and the constraints of an A5 portrait size frame.I later erased the frame and extended it to the size of the A4 Crawford & Black sketch pad itself.
The aim was to create an illusion of a three-dimensional form and shape by layering and overlapping the afro combs, placing them in an asymmetrical stylised arrangement so as to arrive at a more dynamic feeling, one that included a sense of rhythm of combs spiralling that led the viewer's eye to view the artwork at a focal point of visual unity and to then look elsewhere.I did not want the afro combs to be geometrically organised in any way.I added more lines on the bottom right to represent elements of the afro comb and to indicate movement.
The idea of a Black Power fist 4 evolved over a period of a few days.It made sense to incorporate this part of the image at the top so as to make a connection, not just with the power of afro hair, but with the history of how the Black Power fist became an icon overnight; when Tommie Smith and John Carlos protested on the podium at the 1968 Olympics, while the US national anthem was playing, refusing to salute, instead raising their fists up as they bowed their heads to symbolise Black Power.I was only fifteen years of age, yet I felt that power, despite the thousands of miles between the US and Northamptonshire, where I was living at the time.
The rich vibrant background colour scheme of gouache paint in red, yellow, and green developed naturally, so as to make cultural connections with the Rastafari flag, 5 with my Guyanese heritage, with the history of wearing my hair in dreadlocks between 2006 and 2012, and of wearing my hair in an afro in the 1970s.These Africentric diasporic connections supported my artistic process while making the artwork.The artistic process also included documenting the art method by taking photos at different stages, and by making audio recordings to capture my thoughts and feelings.
The interpretation of abstract or abstract realism 6 artwork remains open to its viewer.Hair Power is now framed and resides with an African Caribbean art collector, Lennox Charles, who I have known for many years.Lennox kindly provided me with a narrative of what the painting meant to him, in terms of the colour scheme, and iconic symbols, stating that: "I found the colours to be bright and distinctive, like colours used in Ghanaian fashion, based on the African continent with a Caribbean theme.The painting demonstrates how much we as a people should speak up and be counted in the bigger scheme of things, whether we are from the Caribbean or Africa, as there is a sense of Oneness, Earthiness, and a common ground found in our hearts towards nature and toward each other.The Black Power fist symbolises the daily struggles we face yet we remain a force of power.The interlocking combs say that together as a people we are strong, unbreakable, rather than when we stand alone.The heart in the centre of the painting shows that we are or should be of one heart and mind, so that we can stand strong through all that comes our way.The heart also says that we should always show love, even to those that hate and abuse us, for we are a people of Mother Earth.We keep giving, but God help them the day when we say Enough is Enough!" The journey of making Hair Power was particularly enlightening, especially knowing that I was going to be talking on the WAD event panel, sharing my perspective on afro hair, as well as reading poetry from my Hair Power Skin Revolution anthology.This opened up my consciousness in the same way a tree flourishes when it blossoms, and the inspiration was enough to motivate me to make the artwork.
Many Black women I have met throughout my adult life have gone through the dilemma of social conditioning that is so dominant in society, that, almost without a thought, it is easy to get tangled up in the ideology that straight hair is something to strive for.Hair discrimination is still particularly rife, especially but not exclusively, in schools all over the UK and continues to affect Black pupils who wear afro hairstyles.Wearing afro hair is typically perceived as unprofessional in corporate settings.Even though UK law protects individuals on the grounds of nine "protected characteristics" including race, age, religion and sexual orientation, the Equality Act 2010 7 needs amending, since hair is not specifically named as a "protected" characteristic, and as a grey area, is open to discrimination."This reveals the cultural bias at play in the law and demonstrates a blind spot that ignores one of the defining features of blackness." 8Despite this, a natural hair renaissance has developed within the last ten years, with Black women ditching relaxers and weaves, Black men embracing a more natural textured look, and a growth in Black people wearing dreadlocks.There is no doubt about it, an increasing number of Black people are thankfully embracing their natural hair with pride and challenging those Eurocentric fashion trends that seek to influence their lives.They are discovering that afro hair is beautiful when left to its own devices.

Notes:
1 The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, commonly known as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) or the United Nations Human Rights Office, 'is a department of the Secretariat of the United Nations that works to promote and protect human rights that are guaranteed under international law and stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.The office was established by the United Nations General Assembly on 20 December 1993 in the wake of the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights.' -Wikipedia 2 Moore, N. (Ed.) (2010) Hair Power Skin Revolution, a collection of poems and personal essays by Black and Mixed-Race women.
3 The afro comb is much more than a hair accessory; it is an icon that has long been associated with the 1970s, a time when the Afro represented Black culture and the civil rights movement.It was a time when afros were worn not just as a chic hairstyle but as a political emblem and a signature of unity and a collective identity.According to an exhibition: Origins of the Afro Comb: 6,000 Years of Culture, Politics, and Identity.'the afro comb dates back to ancient Egypt; the oldest comb from the exhibition's collection is 5,500 years old.' 4 'During a medal ceremony in the Olympic Stadium in Mexico City on 16 October 1968, two African American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, each raised a black-gloved fist during the playing of the US national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner".In his autobiography, Silent Gesture, published nearly 30 years later, Smith revised his statement that the gesture was not a "Black Power" salute per se, but rather a "human rights" salute.The demonstration is regarded as one of the most overtly political statements in the history of the modern Olympics.'-Wikipedia.