CIACLA Performance, Jun 2019

DONNING and DISMISSAL of the CONQUEROR’S COIFFURE
a performance by Lili Bernard and Children

Care Critique Complicity Performance Art Exhibition
at Contemporary Irish Art Institute Los Angeles
Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, CA

June 16, 2019

Lili Bernard. Donning and Dismissal of the Conqueror’s Coiffure, 2019. Contemporary Irish Arts Center Los Angeles

Donning and Dismissal of the Conqueror’s Coiffure uses public engagement and tropes of Afro-Cuban religious folklore (expressed through art objects, costumes, performance and music) to explore the psyche and self-perception of the colonized Black woman. In a fun and textural way, the work raises awareness of a serious issue: the pervasive subconscious association of Blackness with wrongness, as evidenced in commonplace expressions such as “good hair” versus “bad hair.” Such dilemma is the root of the trauma Black women have experienced relative to our hair. The examination of these learned subconscious feelings of inadequacy, reflected in hairstyle, speaks to a larger audience. It creates conversation on the collective unconscious dependency born of colonialism.

Lili Bernard. Donning and Dismissal of the Conqueror’s Coiffure, 2019. Contemporary Irish Arts Center Los Angeles 1

Lili Bernard. Donning and Dismissal of the Conqueror’s Coiffure, 2019. Contemporary Irish Arts Center Los Angeles