Melbourne's Heide Museum of Modern Art has unveiled a new exhibition this week, but it's centred on a topic you perhaps wouldn't expect to see in a museum. Hair.

Hair Pieces is the title of the new Heide MOMA show – an exhibition that explores the complex significance of hair in contemporary culture, through a selection of Australian and international works of art. It brings together historic and contemporary works across a selection of mediums including painting, photography, video, installation, sculpture and recorded live performance.

"For millennia hair has been a resonant and compelling site of meaning, transmitting ideas about gender, mythology, status and power, the body, psychology, feminism and notions of beauty," read the museum's notes. "At once radiant and repellent, and often richly symbolic, it has always assumed a particular importance in relation to the self, history and society."

"Hair Pieces examines the myriad ways in which artists utilise hair to investigate themes encompassing growth, empowerment and transformation."

Who are the artists exhibiting?

Hair Pieces features works of art by nearly forty artists from across the world: Belgium, China, Japan, Nigeria, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States, and Australia.

Highlights include Cuban-American performance artist Ana Mendieta’s work Untitled (Facial Hair Transplant), Relation in Time by renowned collaborators Marina Abramović and Ulay, British artist Sonia Boyce’s Exquisite Tension, and Bahamian-born artist Janine Antoni’s Loving Care.

Prominent Australian artist Christian Thompson’s three-channel video installation Heat will also be on display,

When will the exhibition run until?

Heide MOMA's Hair Pieces exhibit will run from now until 6 October 2024.

Take a look at the Heide MOMA hair exhibition

Take a look at some of install images below...

Hair Pieces will run from 4 May to 6 October 2024 at Heide Museum of Modern Art at 7 Templestowe Road, Bulleen Victoria 3105. For more information, visit the Heide MOMA website.