Hair Apparent

Agustina Woodgate
Sleeperitos
felted human hair, 2007



















“You see, it all started with hair, human hair,” Agustina Woodgate says as she turns to her computer and clicks on a picture of brown shoes made of felted, human hair. For years now, Woodgate has been collecting large quantities of hair—from friends, family, and strangers. Occasionally, she'll set up a mobile barber shop in public spaces. “I am not a hairdresser, and I tell people that when they sit down. I tell them I am cutting hair to use in an art project. Some people are excited that their hair will be made into art. Others just want a free haircut.”

Last year, Woodgate created portraits of her female family members by painstakingly replacing the bristles of each woman's actual hairbrush with locks of the subject's hair. The portrait of her great-grandmother, a wide, silver hairbrush with long, wavy gray hair sweeping to one side, is particularly moving, beautiful, and disturbing. Simple in form, this work is visceral, psychological, playful, and layered in meaning. These are portraits of sexuality and death –– the remnants of time torn from its source.

Agustina Woodgate
Brush Series - My Great Grandmother Beba
silver brush, Beba's hair, 2007






Originally from Argentina, Woodgate has lived in Miami for the past three years. “Why do I use hair? “Woodgate continues with an animated laugh. “My work is autobiographical and narrative. I'm a storyteller. I research my own dreams, curiosities, and desires. I am interested in absurdity, so my work is never one thing. But I brought no hair with me to Santa Fe. I am not a hair artist. I am a conceptual artist. I use whatever materials best fit my ideas.”

Woodgate arrived in Santa Fe from Miami on Sept 1. Asked what she is planning to do in New Mexico, she grins and says, “I don't know yet. But you know how ideas happen. They are inspired by experiences or a place. And I love the desert. So we'll see.”

Woodgate is in Santa Fe as an artist-in-residence at the Santa Fe Art Institute (SFAI), one of the most intimate and innovative venues for seeing contemporary art in Santa Fe. Located on the College of Santa Fe campus on St. Michael's Drive, SFAI hosts one of the smartest, free art events in the city—Open Studio. The artists who come to SFAI can easily slip in and out of town unnoticed. But if the art-loving public realizes what they're missing, that will change.

Once a month, the artists- and writers-in-residence open their studios to the public and welcome dialog with visitors, allowing anyone who's interested to see what most of us never see: the art before it is completed—when it is in its awkward (and exciting) adolescent state. There's free parking and free refreshments. Best of all, though, is the rare opportunity to ask questions, share stories, and get intimate insights into how artists think and work. One helpful addition would be a resident listing on the SFAI Web site, which would give visitors a head's up about who they will meet at the next Open House.

SFAI hosts an international array of artists and writers for periods of one to three months, all year long. The artists live in private, modern rooms at the Institute itself, and are provided large, open studios on site. According to residency director Gabe Gomez, “Our residents come from all over the world, so the Open Studio provides an opportunity for them to engage with the local community in meaningful way. The Open Studios are a combined event. We begin with readings from our writers and then we tour the visual artists' studios. Each Open Studio is different because of the constant rotation of residents. There's never a dull moment.”

And that's true. SFAI hosts artists who work in a dizzying range of media and approaches and come from every corner of the world. Some are young, emerging artists—others are well established. At the upcoming Open Studio Thursday, five writers and five artists will share their work, including Hisao Ihara, a video artist from Tokyo who now lives in New York, and Don Bogen, poet and writer whose work has appeared in The New Republic and The Paris Review.

Sandra Clark, a photographer, and Evert Witte, are residents at SFAI for the second time. Ironically, their last visit was soon after Hurricane Katrina. “We thought we were coming here for our second visit under completely different circumstances, and then Hurricane Gustav hit,” Clark says with a resigned smile. “Three years ago we lost everything: all our belongings, all our artwork, all my camera equipment, all the documentation of our work. All I had left was a small briefcase of photographic negatives. That's what I brought with me to Santa Fe three years ago, and I brought them with me this time, too. I am not sure what I will do with them, but it seemed important to have them with me. ”

Witte mixes minimalism, structuralism and Abstract Expressionism in his oil paintings on canvas. His compositions start out as chaotic sets of forms and marks, sometimes with figurative elements. His goal is to organize that chaos-to place an edifice around the rat's nest of life. The desire for structure seems almost predictable in someone who survived one of the worst disasters in recent American memory. Yet out of the catastrophe came an opening. “I plan to work on paper—make smaller work that will inspire larger paintings later. I feel like the work is changing. It's more dramatic, more colorful. When we lost everything in Katrina, we also lost all our baggage. It's a new start.”

Open Studio at Santa Fe Art Institute
1600 St. Michael's Drive, Santa Fe
505-424-5050
September 18, 2008, 4-6 pm

This review was originally published in the September 12, 2008 issue of the Journal Santa Fe, in the column Object Lessons.