This summer, a water-filled "Party Wall" will be constructed in the courtyard of MoMA PS1, but something very different had the chance to take over the Long Island City space: human hair. One of the finalists in the Young Architects Program, TempAgency, planned to collaborate with 120 salons in New York City to collect human hair, which the designers would affix to metal mesh and mold into benches, shading structures, sculptures, and something that looks a lot like a giant animal nest. While we appreciate the trash-into-treasure mentality, the whole thing kind of gives us the heebie jeebies.
Apparently, every salon produces more than four feet of hair clippings every day, and TempAgency would need about 80 feet of hair to make this project, aptly called "My Hair is at MoMA PS1," happen. The architects call it "a project about everyone: the waste we produce, our hair. It is an element that links us, divides us, fascinates us, and traces our diversity as a process and relic of life and reflection of ourselves."
After collecting the hair, they would carefully inspect it and have it professionally sanitized and dyed. Then it would be "bound with customized weather-proof, fire-retardant silicone" before they attached it to the mesh. The hair would be tagged by salon, so theoretically, people would be able to locate their own hair in the sculptures.
It's all very interesting (and very weird), but we're glad we'll be treated to a PS1 pavilion where the only hair is found on visitors' heads.
· My Hair is at MoMA PS1 [Bustler via PSFK]
· TempAgency [official]
· Water-Filled 'Party Wall' Wins MoMA PS1 Architecture Contest [Curbed]
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