Crowning glory in art

"Go big, go bold, or go bald."

This was the ongoing statement for "Hair on Fire," the current hair exhibit at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston.

Visitors to the opening were urged to style their hair in the most outrageous ways possible, so as to "blend in" with the artwork. One of the artists, Caryl Burtner, even set up an ongoing "clipping station" where visitors could cut off a piece of their hair and add it to her collection. Talk about letting your hair down.

The exhibit features six artists and their various art forms made of either synthetic or real hair.

"Our hair is what makes us unique," said Curator Mark Sloan.

Artist Loren Schwerd uses pieces of synthetic and real hair to form miniature houses. After Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Schwerd rescued useless bags of hair from a flooded hair salon, and used them in her artwork. The houses, though now abstract and made of hair, resemble the destroyed houses she saw in New Orleans after the hurricane. Schwerd said her inspiration came from earlier 18th and 19th century mourning portraits, which are pieces of art made out of a deceased person's hair and symbolizing death and rebirth.

"My current project, "Mourning Portraits," began as a series of memorials to the communities of New Orleans that were devastated by the federal levee breaches that followed Hurricane Katrina. ... By documenting private homes, I venerate the city's losses, both individual and collective."

Another artist, Althea Murphy-Price, uses synthetic hair to produce high-relief wall art, as well as sculptures. "My creative process is one that parallels an approach to styling hair. The variable and compliant nature of hair allows me the freedom to work in a number of ways rooted in ornamentation," said Murphy-Price. In the "Hair on Fire" exhibit, Murphy-Price has contributed a ring of finely coiled hair shaped into flowers on the wall, a throw rug of minutely sheared locks of hair, and an enormous synthetic wig.

Other pieces of the exhibit include: Ruth Marten's watercolor prints of various hairstyles, Talia Greene's digitally modified cabinet cards featuring dead flies, and Sonya Clark's art made out of her own hair and that of her friends. Also, the exhibit is housing some of the Charleston Museum's pieces of hair jewelry. From lockets, medallions, and brooches containing hair-made mini-portraits, to necklaces made of a loved one's hair, this "memento mori" collection has it all.

The Hair on Fire exhibit is free and open during the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, through June 15, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art can be found inside the Simons Center for the Arts, at 54 St. Philip St. For more information, call 953-5680, or visit the Web site at www.halsey.cofc.edu.

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