Opening Reception: Saturday, May 9, 6 - 9 PM featuring hair-themed DJ set by Bouffant Bouffant

May 10 - June 7, 2015 / Every Saturday and Sunday, 12 - 5 PM

UNO St. Claude Gallery / 2429 St. Claude Avenue

Pelican Bomb's latest roving exhibition, "(De)Tangled" is a digital and physical exhibition all about the politics of hair. The central focus of "(De)Tangled" is an interactive gallery that invites the residents of New Orleans to see themselves as works of art. Every Saturday and Sunday, May 9 - June 7, Pelican Bomb is taking over the UNO St. Claude Gallery (2429 St. Claude Avenue) to create the 2015 New Orleans Hair Archive. Visitors will have their hairstyles photographed, drawn live by a cartoonist, and will be asked to name their styles. All drawn portraits will be added to the wall to create a growing, changing, living archive of current hairstyles in New Orleans.

Over the course of five weekends, Pelican Bomb will attempt to document as many hairstyles as possible. The goal of this interactive gallery is to create a fun, lively, and safe space to connect wide audiences to important ideas in contemporary art and explore the ways that art can offer entry points to deeply personal, complicated, and often contested areas of dialogue in everyday life.

The interactive gallery will be complemented by a digital exhibition and series of commissioned writings. Throughout the exhibition run, Pelican Bomb will be rolling out a series of artist projects using photography, video, and animation; essays; and artist interviews. The digital artist projects and commissioned writings address a range of topics: conceptions of “good” and “bad” hair for black women; fantasy hair and identity in drag performance; body hair and the sexualized body in photography; barber loyalty and ideas of masculinity; and more. Offering diverse perspectives and multiple entry points for discussion, the exhibition is in direct conversation with museum and gallery shows happening throughout the country, critical writings, and pop culture interest in the subject.

For all press inquiries, contact Amanda Brinkman.

Photo by Nakeya Brown.