Hairstyle: J. D. 'Okhai Ojeikere

“To watch a ‘hair artist’ going through his precise gestures, like an artist making a sculpture, is fascinating. Hairstyles are an art form.”-J. D. 'Okhai Ojeikere

'HAIRSTYLE'
Over 1000 head shots of women document the on-going series 'Hairstyles' by Nigerian photographer J. D. 'Okhai Ojeikere. The collection placed the artist in the international scene with his most important body of work that archives the elaborate and sculptural technique that Nigerian women identify with. 'The sculptures for a day' are pictures the artist takes chronicling his daily routine as he walks in the streets, meets people in offices, and randomly sites women in public spaces. The images are a type of historical socio-political documentation of Nigeria as it has faced economic changes since the oil boom years. The au courant images are an expression of prosperity of extravagant fabrics described by and though women's hair. 

There is a systematic logic to 'Okhai Ojeikere setup as the women are placed in methodical positions that are repeated, a type of duplication of expression of female style. The photographs have more impact in series as the variety and character of individual craft. The barade, ponytale, and bun are taken to a whole new level as each woman individually creates her own masterpiece. Nigerian women are famous for their approach to hair and 'Okhai Ojeikere has proven it to be art-worthy. 

“All these hairstyles are ephemeral. I want my photographs to be noteworthy traces of them. I always wanted to record moments of beauty, moments of knowledge. Art is life. Without 
art, life would be frozen.”- J. D. 'Okhai Ojeikere

BY ASSOCIATION
What are essentially dead cells are not just let to hang but are maintained, groomed and styles. They order is linked to a type of social association, a so-called hair networking. Seems a very basic element to consider as a social symbol. Hair con be perceived as the window to race, class and gender with underlying sexuality and provocativeness, or the lack of it. People identify themselves through hair. Children recognize at an early age the difference between male and females by its length. Women wear, for most cultures, their hair long while men short. It may appear trivial, but the natural production of something so simple is complicated when it comes to identity politics. 

Hair makes up a component in the eclectic parts that make up an individual. According to Freud, the perception of 'self' is continuous shifting from conscious to unconscious. There are aspects of identity that are intentionally decided and those which are dictated by environment. Those two conflicting conditions, according to Freud, from the knowledge and awareness of 'self'. The Western representation, according to William V. Dunning's 'Post-Modernism and the constructed of the Divisible Self', is a linear process. The identity changes in a logical order as time progresses. Reasonably, this means that individuals partake in a larger association, part of a community, that adapts and alters in a logical, one assumes, order. Hairstyles document periods and change with time, like fashion. The tribal representation of self appear to be timeless, as the identity of individuals, creative as they are, are timeless. The collective representation can represent an ideology of a race, tribe, or group without being defined by time.  

  

J. D. 'Okhai Ojeikere's photographs seems to fit within the second nature of identity. Though it is the artist's intentions to document the progression of Nigerian originality, the color, layout, and consistency speak another language, the one of collective identity of the uninterrupted. The monochromatic systematic images of women are presented similarly, almost copies. The consistency creates an absence of time. What was photographed in the '60s could easily have been taken yesterday. The intricacy and technique of hair is what differentiates them. If the discourse was altering fashions, then the rest of the image, the rest of the body, the rest of the clothing, would be a necessity. In this case, their conscious lacking of such elements, makes hair the only topic of analysis. As Dunning would have preceived it, 'Okhai Ojeikere's Nigeria is unlimited, timeless.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
J. D. 'Okhai Ojeikere was born in 1930 in a rural southwestern village called Ketou, Nigeria. In 1950 he invested in a Brownie D camera and took photography lessons with his neighbor. In 1954 he became the dark room assistant for the Ministry of Information in Ibdan. In 1961, at the end of colonial rule, he worked as a photographer for Television House Ibadan, a part of the first television station in African called Western Nigerian Broadcasting Services. In 1967 he joined the Nigerian Arts Council. It was the same year that inspired his series of photographs that flourished without commercial or patronal support. 'Hairstyles' is a never ending series that has already accumulated estimated 1000 images. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY

Chapman, Yolanda Michele. ''I am not My Hair! Or am I?': Black Women's Transformative Experience in their Self Perception of Abroad and at Home'. (Giorgia: Giorgia State University: Department of Anthropology). 2007, Anthropology thesis, paper 23. 

Dunning, William V. 'Post Modernism and the Construct of Divisible Self' in British Journal of Aesthetics. Vol. 33, No. 2. April 1993. pp. 132-41

Jones, Diana Lopez. 'This is Progress?: Surveying a Century of Native American Stories About Hair' in The Lion and the Unicorn, Vol. 3. No. 2. April 2013. pp.143-56

Pigozzi, Jean. 'J. D. 'Okhai Ojeikere' in Contemporary African Art Collection (online). http://www.caacart.com/pigozzi-artist.php?i=Ojeikere-J-D-Okhai&m=59 (last accessed 15:49, 11/5/2013)

Omenk Gallery. http://omenkagallery.com/?p=1653 (last accessed 15:51, 11/5/2013)



'