3pm

FREE

Please join Amy, Greygory, and Felix for a talk about Amy Pennington's recent artist residency at Open Barbers. The talk will take place at Hotel Elephant where their exhibition 'Assuming too much' is showing. Some of the subjects we would like to touch upon are gender, drawing, socially engaged practice, community, and working with people. We will be taking questions early on as we want conversations to be audience led as much as possible. 

‘Assuming Too Much’ is the culmination of Amy Pennington’s 5-month residency at LGBTQ friendly Open Barbers, the UK’s first transgender – led hair salon. Going to the hairdresser’s is never just as simple as getting your hair cut – you come to be styled as yourself – within the confines, of course, of the kind of ‘self’ the world allows you to be.

In this solo exhibition, Amy will be exhibiting a large selection of hair portraits – no face shape, no facial features, no model’s pose – these portraits trace the sitters’ hair only. Amy’s approach is to focus on the personal connection that goes into making an image, she sees this as a ‘conversation’ and asks the sitters to give their portraits a title. These drawings will be complied into a Look Book for Open Barbers – a catalogue of hair style ideas that clients can choose from, without limiting associations of gender, age or attractiveness that hairdresser’s images normally impose. The Look Book will be available to buy as a limited edition during the exhibition at Hotel Elephant. 

There are 40 places available, and the event is free. There will be a bar where you can buy refreshments.