Oh. Lorna Simpson. Her hair collages make my collage-loving heart skip a beat … brilliant, beautiful, and this time a little bit rocky. These pieces are part of a series of 12, exclusive to Vogue.com. Here is Vogue’s description of this fantastic work:
Now, her subjects are more liberated than ever… in a new exclusive series for Vogue.com, Simpson has lifted the faces of 12 women from “very mundane” ’60s and ’70s advertisements in Ebony magazine—the culture and politics monthly she grew up with that “informed my sense of thinking about being black in America”—and paired them with illustrations of geological and astrological forms from a 1931 textbook. Stripped of any fundamental context, the women provide no origin story and no identifying characteristics. The geometric shapes replacing their hair weren’t chosen for their resemblance to, say, Nefertiti’s crown or Erykah Badu’s emerald head wrap—references that may spring to mind as you look at them—but rather for the same reason you might cut, color, or change the texture of your hair: simply because, says Simpson, “I thought they were beautiful.”
Sigh… I do too.
These are gorgeous! Thank you for sharing them.
I am in love with these! Stunning!
Ms. Simpson is one of my favs!! Black women and our hair – it’s a complicated relationship but a beautiful one. Collage is taking my breathe away lately. I can’t get enough of them. I admire your work too Danielle. I would love a crit by you ***hands over eyes, ears and mouth!*** (@christadavid.art on IG).