This exhibition is now closed

Bad Hair Day

4 June 2016 –
28 May 2017

Bad Hair Day investigates the wild and wonderful ways of hair through painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography and video. 

A 'bad hair day', according to the Compact Oxford English Dictionary, is a day on which everything goes wrong.

This exhibition investigates the wild and unpredictable ways of hair – and human behaviour – through historical and contemporary painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography and video.

From the satirical to the surreal, and through a lively array of the bearded, bald or bewigged, it also introduces audiences to a fascinating range of artists' works, and to ideas as diverse as the styles portrayed.

Mixing inspiration, observation and imagination, Bad Hair Day is shaped with younger audiences in mind.

Curator:
Ken Hall

Exhibition number: 1010

Related

Exhibition
I See Red

I See Red

5 December 2007 – 23 November 2008

Through a selection of eclectic, mainly contemporary artworks for the Gallery's collection, this interactive children's exhibition explores some of the strong meanings and ideas associated with the colour red.

Exhibition
Art Detectives

Art Detectives

20 October 2006 – 25 November 2007

From the collections comes this delightful interactive exhibition for children of all ages, encouraging younger visitors to explore and connect with artworks.

Exhibition
Ape To Zip: Adventures in Alphabet Art

Ape To Zip: Adventures in Alphabet Art

13 May 2005 – 8 October 2006

A light-hearted art alphabet adventure bringing together a curious assortment of artworks in an exhibition designed to captivate the young and the young at heart.

Exhibition
Blue Planet

Blue Planet

21 November 2009 – 20 February 2011

Looking at the ways artists have used the colour blue, Blue Planet celebrates imaginative art making and thinking. Shaped with younger audiences in mind.

Exhibition
White on White

White on White

23 November 2008 – 14 November 2009

New for children and families, White on White is the thought-provoking replacement to I See Red. Includes new works by contemporary artists, and works from the permanent collection by Ando Hiroshige, Eileen Mayo, Jude Rae and Peter Robinson.

Postcard From...
Postcard From…

Postcard From…

I learnt a while ago that, at any one time, as many as one in five New Zealanders are overseas – that’s one million of us trying to navigate work and life while holding familial and cultural bonds to this island nation. I’ve been living here in Houston, Texas for the last six months; it will be home for the foreseeable future and, almost inadvertently, I’ve joined the ranks of New Zealand artists who, after establishing themselves in their home country, have moved overseas, if only for a time.

Continued

Commentary
Hair Story

Hair Story

In drawing attention to the theatre of personal grooming, Bad Hair Day brings together portraiture and caricature with a variety of less readily classifiable works of art. The densely packed selection spans a vast historical range. And in putting bowl cuts and bushy beards alongside wayward wigs and whiskers, it highlights the sometimes comical aspects of hair, especially when styles are extreme. If wry intent is discernible throughout the exhibition, however, we shouldn’t let this fool us: hair is a topic that easily turns serious.

Continued

Notes
A Bad Hair Day for All

A Bad Hair Day for All

A bad hair day is usually symbolic of a period of chaos – an evocative, dowdy omen for what will follow. It signifies the potential for a truly awful day, a day off kilter from the ordinary. Yet despite all the laborious processes and obstacles in the paths of the exhibition team while creating this exhibition, the bad day that threatened to accompany all that bad hair, was not the one that actualised. From conception to finish, Bad Hair Day has been a subversion of its theme: despite everything that could possibly go wrong, including almost literal hell and high water, the finished piece has proven the concept of the ‘bad hair day’ wrong. 

Notes
Chaliapin

Chaliapin

In our leatest exhibition Bad Hair Day there is a caricature of the singer Chaliapin in the role of Don Quixote. Chaliapin visited New Zealand in 1926 but it seems likely that this drawing originates with the film Don Quixote, directed by Georg Pabst, in which Chaliapin starred.

This film opened in Christchurch in September 1934

Notes
Spooky

Spooky

Maybe it's just a Halloween hangover, but there's something strange in the neighbourhood.

Notes
Not in my name

Not in my name

I saw this in Woolston the other day.

Notes
Open House – our opening (and reopening) exhibitions

Open House – our opening (and reopening) exhibitions

It's an open house. Come in. That's the simple message we'll be sending when the Gallery reopens later this year.

Leo Bensemann St Olaf c.1937. Oil on canvas on board. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, Lawrence Baigent / Robert Erwin Bequest 2003. Reproduced with permission

Ronnie van Hout End Doll (detail) 2007. Mixed media. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 2007. Reproduced with permission

Yvonne Todd Ethlyn 2005. Photograph. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 2005