Inkijk # 21: Blond

For the Blond project the Inkijk was transformed into a fully equipped hairdressing saloon, where the usual hairdressing advertisements are replaced by photos of works of art in which ‘being blond’ plays a role. In this hairdressing saloon people can have their hair professionally bleached for free.
Nicolai’s idea for this piece is based on the reproduction of the symbol of beauty and glamour: being blond. Blond hair has a range of references, varying from purity, innocence and sex appeal to a gay look. In Western Europe, however, hardly anyone is naturally blond; virtually all blond is artificial, in other words made and reproduced. Nicolai’s aim is to magnify this recurrent process of reproduction and to allow his customers a clear choice by offering different shades of blond. There is just one condition to being bleached for free: every customer has to have his or her photograph taken before and after the treatment and to agree that the artist may publish the photographs.