The importance of hair and personal appearance crosses culture and time. In the barbers or beautician’s chair, we place our identities in the hands of a trusted stranger while others wait to do the same; here, we observe, we listen, we communicate.
Barbershops’ and beauty salons’ presence in the American cultural landscape has been quietly profound, representing social hubs where politics, personal stories, jokes and local news are funneled and carried outward into the community.
Using Smokey’s Barbershop and Oldies, located at 1338 H street NE, as a starting point for navigating the H Street community, Workingman Collective will engage the barbers and beauticians of H St. to document the synthesis of economy, community, process and structure that is present in and radiates from the shops. The group will also document collateral evidence of the relationship between the interior and exterior of the shops and their surrounding environment, the organic form and social networking system of dynamic community.
Workingman Collective will create an installation in the 1341 H Street gallery space that will consist of the photographs and a continuous digital projection of the images that will be able to be viewed from both inside and outside the gallery space. Over the course of the exhibition Workingman Collective will continue to add images to the installation and create forms of engagement within the H Street community.
