06/09/2026
"In Purity and Danger (1966), anthropologist Mary Douglas argues that the body’s boundaries stand for the boundaries of societal systems, and it is by defining, policing, and ultimately purging that which violates it – bodily fluids, dirt, etc. – that order is created. Hair is, of course, an interesting thing. It grows out of the body of the person and once shed no longer the person. It is periodically cut and shorn, yet it regrows every day. Hair is, in theoretical terms, liminal. But there is a much older account of the same substance in Peninsular Malay belief. A person’s hair contains their semangat."
— Ong Kar Jin Ong Kar Jin 王家进
📖 Read the full exhibition essay on our website.
On view now in Salon Hang, a solo exhibition by Umar Sharif Umar Sharif at The Back Room.
Opening Hours:
Wednesday – Sunday, 12pm – 6pm.
