We are happy to announce that Mechanics of Conformity (MOC) will bring a "dialogue-based piece" to Mänttä Art Festival this year.

”TO ERR IS HUMAN”
We have worked over the last three years to thoroughly investigate our personal and collective relations to hair and its inevitable sociopolitical inter-relational contexts. We also focused on facilitating conversations through "hair and art making" and here we go!! We are super thankful to everyone who participated, shared and listened to us with openness, trust and interest.

The festival is open from June 14 to August 31, 2020.

Thank you Anna Ruth, the curator of the exhibition, for the inclusion.  And thank you Suomen Kulttuurirahasto for their support.

To read more about Mänttä Art Festival, please click here.  MOC got a mention in Aamulehti. We are honoured to share this experience with so many talented artists.

Everybody is warmly welcome. See you at Mänttä!

With love,
Rosamaría, Edwina, Sepideh and Arlene

Mechanics of Conformity (MOC Collective)
Rosamaría Bolom, Edwina Goldstone, Sepideh Raha, Arlene Tucker
Video screening and discussion in and around the topic of hair
Hosted by Äkkigalleria, Väinönkatu 32, Jyväskylä
October 5, 2019 from 13:30-16:00

Welcome to participate in an intimate conversation with MOC, where we can listen, share and learn about each other’s experiences related to hair. Your thoughts contribute to a deeper understanding of our collective and individual histories. Only through dialogue can discoveries be made.

How do we look at ourselves?
How do they look at us?
How do others look at each other?

MOC investigates the excess, absence, cutting, covering, growing, coloring and grooming of hair as both the materialization of individuality and of conformity. As an artistic medium and mediator of meaning, hair can communicate a sense of self relating to the internal and the external others. From this perspective, it can either uphold or upset conventional distinctions between divisions of gender, race, region and religion. These issues around hair can epitomize a global yet subjective social and personal significance.

MOC Collective consists of Rosamaría Bolom, Edwina Goldstone, Sepideh Raha, and Arlene Tucker. We explore concepts of identity, relationships, perceptions, liberation and otherness through hair. Ask a person about their hair, and they just might tell you the story of their life. MOC has been working around the subject of hair since 2017.

This event is organised in collaboration with Anna Ruth and Äkkigalleria, also is supported by Taiteen Edistämiskeskus. The discussion and screening is open to everybody and to all ages. The main language of the event will be conducted in English. There is the possibility for Finnish translation and, of course, freedom to express oneself in Finnish is encouraged.

Video lineup:

The Story of Hair Tree & Intertwined
By Arlene Tucker 2019

The Story of Hair Tree & Intertwined shows the process of how these two projects were developed and created. Intertwined looks at how family members relate to each other despite their shared DNA. Here, the concept of family also extends to individuals welcomed by choice. This piece is a continuation of Arlene Tucker’s Hair Tree (2017), which gathered family members scattered over four continents by collecting cuttings of their hair. Moving back in time, she attempts to comb through memories to understand where and how knots are formed. Tucker hopes this will further open dialogue about family and with family.

Watching Me, Watching You, Watching Me
By Edwina Goldstone 2018

Watching Me, Watching You, Watching Me, follows the metamorphosis of an image through many stages as it follows the twists and turns of the artist’s decision-making and memory process as she recalls and connects past & present conversations about ‘Hair’, with all the ambivalent, contradictory ideas and mixed feelings that are attached to it. Added together as an animated sequence the drawings form a peculiar imaginative narrative that never remains constant but grows and morphs with thought and time.

Me recuerdo a mi misma // I remember my self // Muistan itseni
By Rosamaría Bolom 2019

Year 2017, Mechanics of Conformity Collaboration lead me to a deeper reflection about how norms and values are introjected into our behavior since our childhood. A series of images came to me. I could remember three efficient rituals whose normative beliefs affect behavior. Me recuerdo a mi misma // I remember my self // Muistan itseni, is a “mask and a ritual for a society that judges us and teaches us how to behave ourselves from childhood to old age not to be punished, excluded accepted”.

Entangled – ME & HAIR
By Sepideh Rahaa 2018

Entangled – ME & HAIR is an ongoing project where I address my memories and experiences in relation to hair, where hair plays a meaningful role in my daily life interactions with people in society. It brings up questions such as how do we connect and disconnect from each other in relation to our looking, and how one can overcome the mechanism of conformity in everyday life. I used a series of life memories and experiences conveying the core concept through performing art, poetry and video.

https://mechanicsofconformity.weebly.com/

MECHANICS OF CONFORMITY (MOC) Part II
A collaboration between Catalysti artists and Objekti festival 2018

As part of Objekti Festival, there will be an exhibition at Trapesa 14.6-2.9.2018. In addition, there will be two public events in the form of a conversational piece. The events are organized at Trapesa on Friday, the 15th of June and on Friday, the 17th of August from 17:30 to 20:30.
​
Our collective project investigates the excess, absence, cutting, covering, growing, coloring and grooming of hair as both the materialization of individuality and of conformity. As an artistic medium and mediator of meaning, hair can communicate a sense of self and otherness. In this sense, it can either uphold or upset conventional distinctions between divisions of gender, race, region and religion. From these issues, hair epitomizes a global yet subjective social and personal significance.

Within this collaboration, four women explore concepts of identity, relationships, perceptions, liberation and otherness through hair. Ask a woman about her hair, and she just might tell you the story of her life. Catalysti artists who have shaped MOC collective are Rosamaria Bolom, Edwina Goldstone, Sepideh Rahaa and Arlene Tucker. MOC collective has been created around the subject of hair and from early 2017.

Ask a woman about her hair, and she just might tell you the story of her life. Ask a whole bunch of women about their hair, and you could get a history of the world. 

How do they look at us?
How do we look at ourselves?
How do the others look at each other?

Description of the works by each artist

Arlene Tucker: 
​Intertwined looks at how family members relate to each other despite their shared DNA. Here, the concept of family also extends to individuals welcomed by choice. This piece is a continuation of Arlene Tucker’s Hair Tree (2017), which gathered family members scattered over four continents by collecting cuttings of their hair. Moving inwards, she attempts to comb through memories to understand where and how knots are formed. Tucker hopes this will further open dialogue about family and with family.

Edwina Goldstone:
Watching Me, Watching You, Watching Me, follows the metamorphosis of an image through many stages as it follows the twists and turns of the artist's decision-making and memory process as she recalls and connects past & present conversations about ‘Hair’, with all the ambivalent, contradictory ideas and mixed feelings that are attached to it. Added together as an animated sequence the drawings form a peculiar imaginative narrative that never remains constant but grows and morphs with thought and time.

Romamaría Bolom:
Last year, Mechanics of Conformity Collaboration lead me to a deeper reflection about how norms and values are introjected into our behavior since our childhood. A series of images came to me. I could remember three efficient rituals whose normative beliefs affect behavior. Me recuerdo a mi misma // I remember my self // Muistan itseni, is a mask and a ritual for a society that judges us and teaches us how to behave ourselves from childhood to old age. Also, not to be punished or excluded that are established and normalized. 

Sepideh Rahaa:
Entangled- ME & HAIR is an ongoing project where Rahaa is addressing her personal identity and its relation to hair, where hair plays a significant role in her daily life interacting with others in the society, how we connect and disconnect based on our appearance. Artist has used series of life memories and experiences conveying the core concept through performing art, poetry and video.

http://objekti.net/
http://www.catalysti.fi/

This project is supported by The Arts Promotion Centre Finland (Taike).