05 ABR – 02 MAY 2025.
«On Hair (&women)» solo exhibition of Clara Abi Nader
The artist Clara Abi Nader will open OBLIQUO’s large vertical screen with her piece On Hair (&women) brings us this project that began in 2014, when the Lebanese artist spontaneously photographed a woman in Paris, initiating her fascination with female hair. Drawing on her own relationship with hair since childhood, she reflects on how it becomes a symbol of identity, power and personal expression.
Observing women in the street, Abi Nader explores how hairstyles reveal traits of each person without the need to show the face. In a society where cosmetic surgery is commonplace, hair is presented as a genuine and unifying element.
The project combines anonymous urban photographs with interviews in intimate spaces, delving into questions of femininity, social norms and identity. Through this work, the artist seeks to question conventions of gender, age and culture, exploring the relationship between hair and the construction of female identity.
Through OBLIQUO’s large vertical screen, accessible to all audiences and in direct dialogue with its urban environment, Clara gives us the opportunity to interact and connect with unknown women through a visual language adapted to the use of mobile devices. Through the testimonies of five women, the artist opens a direct dialogue with passersby in a multicultural neighborhood, questioning the influence of different cultural behaviors on our appearance and identity.
Curator: Rebeca M. Urizar. Supported by PROYECTOR.
OBLIQUO
Calle Valencia 17, Madrid.
Monday to Sunday from 9am to 10pm.
On Hair (&women)
Video
2025
It was December 2014, I was walking along the Place Victor Hugo in Paris, when I saw this lady and instantly decided to follow her until I could take her picture. We went around the square, turned slightly to the right, I noticed a construction site, and as quickly as I could, I took her picture before it was too late. Thus began my obsession with women and their hair.
As a child I was shy. I had long hair, behind which I hid my face. As a teenager, I cut it very short, blindly copying what my older sister did, and I hated it. I remember once, performing at a piano recital, the first thing my brother said to me when I finished was: ‘Someone called you a guy in a dress’.
Today, I love my hair: it’s a part of me that I can’t think of losing, it gives me power, it dresses me, it expresses what I feel at every moment of my life.
I found myself wandering the Parisian streets, looking around me every time I passed a woman and checking her hairstyle. Each one has her spirit, her identity. It says a lot about the person without even revealing her face. In our societies where women often succumb to cosmetic surgery, I try to find a link common to all of us, the hair, what does it represent? This series started in Paris, because I live there. Surely there is a cultural and social effect because of the city itself. The people photographed in the street are not necessarily French or Parisian. Anonymity at the moment of the shot is crucial. In this gesture, there is a certain symbiosis between my act and my subject.
Parallel to these street photos, I continue this study by interviewing other candidates, each with a story to tell, this time taken and found in their intimate space. The work is a kind of introspection, another way of understanding the woman of today: what makes us a woman? How do we confront the norms within a society when we are forced to lose one of our feminine traits? Can we look different and still be accepted? What cultural baggage does hair bring to our identity? Does it reveal who we are, where we come from? What about age? Do we all welcome our white hair? Is long or short hair a sign of our gender and sexual orientation?
Through these questions and the people I will continue to photograph, my hope is to break some of these conventional norms that affect us all, male or female, where most of the time we end up stuck, not knowing who we are, just because we don’t fit in.
Clara Abi Nader
Born and raised in Lebanon, now based in Paris, Clara Abi Nader addresses questions of identity and social norms. She engages with issues that challenge the sense of belonging to a particular place, culture or homeland.