Unraveling ‘Hilos’ —María Dusamp at SaraJune Salon
Ever wondered how art can transform a space and our perception of it? María Dusamp’s latest presentation ‘Hilos,’ does just that by bringing her thought-provoking sculptures into the cozy and creative SaraJune Salon in Brooklyn.
María’s work explores the delicate balance between vulnerability and strength, especially as it relates to women and children. Her pieces dive into themes of innocence, transformation, and the quest for personal reinvention. Each sculpture is a tribute to the resilience and creativity we harness in the face of life’s challenges.
The choice of SaraJune Salon as the venue adds a unique twist. A hair salon isn’t your typical gallery space, but it’s the perfect backdrop for María’s exploration of transformation. Hair, after all, is all about change—whether it’s a new cut, color, or style. María’s sculptures play with these themes, making the salon not just a place for beauty treatments but a stage for deeper reflection.
In this blog, we’ll chat with María about what inspired "Hilos" and how she hopes her work resonates with visitors at SaraJune. We’ll also hear from Rebecca Avellino of SaraJune Salon on why this partnership feels so right and more on how the project went from concept to execution.
María Dusamp | Photo credit: Alexander Si
María, can you share the inspiration behind your latest exhibition "Hilos"? How did the themes of innocence and womanhood come to play such a significant role in your work?
Fragility is often assigned to children and women, unjustifiably or not. Whether it is attached to routine and undeniable early life vulnerabilities or wedged in unjust ideas about the role and place of the female body and kids in our society. These artworks explore times when we yearn for transformation or reinvention and how we seek them out. These celebrate the strengths that escaping these unfair impositions and unsafe realities demands, such as young curiosity, nimble tenacity, and faith in ourselves to survive great losses. They seek to echo the ethos of a respite and armory, like Sara June, for new beginnings and daring self-confidence.
We can all probably remember the thrill of holding a pair of scissors for the first time. As kids, our existence was limited to plushy surfaces, crayons, non-toxic play dough, and sweat-saving Velcro. Any somewhat-pointy corner or intricate figurine tempted exploding sighs and tears. “A precocious adventurer” commends one of our first exposures to risk and its tantalizing thrill. It's an ode to an early opportunity to finally transform our surroundings or appearance. Maybe we snatched the kitchen scissors or stacks of old magazines plopped on our laps for infinite afternoons of focused collages, and we finally think, in mischievous proximity to our hair, “What can I change?”
The two variables of my artwork “Her Brook; Speaking of Ophelia” explore the fate and psyche of Shakespeare's character and the transformative power that greenery and water offer. I wanted to depict flourishes of hair, water, and hand prints in these reliefs as a language of cyclical and natural reinvention. In these microcosms, Ophelia goes mad after immeasurable mental pain and eventually meets tragic eternal tranquility in a stream. The reason for her natural and mental demise remains unclear to scholars even today. Perhaps rather than offering a definitive tragedy, Shakespeare left some room to grant Ophelia grace in seeking internal peace from an undeserved wound and protecting her innocent benevolence. Despite circling tragedy, these artworks seek to laud the liberation of a fleeting psyche echoing water's power to purify, volatility, strength, and tranquility. The green variant seeks to parallel vegetation, and the magenta alludes to the carnal female figure.
The sculpture on the balcony and the yellow piece are tied together, as the organic forms of the second are made with fragments of the hair from the first. “Sink or Float; Intentions Drag” is about the strengths gained from surviving childhood injustices. In “A Glimpse Back,” the separation of form and color at the epicenter alludes to the memory of an instance that marked our lives with severity and perhaps transformed our identity but can be recollected as an eventual victory of survival.
All of these pieces investigate moments that reflect the natural human desire for transformation or reinvention, found in childlike wonder, the release from mental burdens, and the faith in oneself to endure great pain.
What do you hope people take away from experiencing your exhibition in the unique setting of SaraJune Salon?
I hope the Sara June community will recognize in these pieces its own tenets and the same joy of physical transformation they experience every day. I want them to amplify the spirit of this haven in every corner, as it does in each of its members.
Additionally, I want these pieces to applaud the power of hair to make us feel good, and invite us to contemplate if and how the natural beauty of our hair acts as an extension of who we are.
I hope these works commemorate the gains of a woman-led community like Sara June: self-confidence, personal discovery, connection, care, and creative expression. And mirror unique strengths of femininity: compassion, mental resilience, patience, grace, and the perseverance that drives us forward.
How does exhibiting your work in a hair salon in Brooklyn, as opposed to a traditional gallery space, enhance or alter the narrative of "Hilos"? What significance does this setting hold for you?
These pieces can accentuate the transformative ethos inherent in a hair salon, that effervescent excitement we feel when witnessing how creativity transforms our bodies. Hair, for me, is an inexhaustible source of inspiration. It is a rich tapestry of growth and relatable conquered pasts. As I try to capture its curves and sinuous movement, I embark on a search for calm and serenity amidst instability. Its nature, sometimes rebellious, other times fluid, can reflect our mental and emotional state.
It's one of the few parts of ourselves that we can transform throughout our lives, not just out of vanity, but for the confidence it gives us and the opportunity to express ourselves creatively through a portable work of art. Always within our reach. These strands can accompany us, marking and facilitating every stage of our lives. They are like a faithful companion, a wise friend who has forgiven us and accompanied us through thick and thin, for they know us like no one else.
It is especially thrilling to have my work showcased in the borough where I've come to feel myself the most. It is hard to imagine that it could have happened anywhere else, in this strange, varied realm of art, neighborliness, and relentless change. Furthermore, it is an even greater delight to have one of my pieces meet passersby, perhaps even lure them to Sara June.
María Dusamp | Photo credit: Alexander Si
I've always admired your resilience and ability to adapt. Can you share more about how your experiences growing up in Bogotá have influenced your work, especially in terms of exploring themes of identity and transformation?
Thank you so very much. I owe my hometown and family for instilling in me a sense of curiosity and determination. They have offered me a whirlwind of intense, joyful, vital and challenging experiences. These outstanding circumstances and inherited histories have equipped me with the understanding of the significance of resourcefulness, good humor, and humility in a chaotic world.
Bogotá presents countless threads of unforeseeable challenges and magic, shaping its people with unique resilience and humor. There’s a constant interplay of risk and laughter from its living rooms, kitchens, to its bustling streets. The city is defined by its ironies, such as the enduring civil conflict alongside the unparalleled preservation of breathtaking fauna and flora. Within the backdrop of large, loving families and their deep-rooted traditions, holidays like Christmas are marked by solemn reverence and lively celebrations. The city's contradictions are evident in cracked concrete adorned with dandelions, the unusual pairing of cheese in chocolate, chaotic traffic juxtaposed with the whirring of motorbikes, and bureaucratic formalities intertwined with playful slang. And still, Bogotá infuses beauty into everyday life, be it found in its nature or people, fostering enduring friendships crafting unshakeable buoyancy in its erratic pace. Amidst the hypervigilance that any large city demands, humbling craters of poverty, long Sunday lunches, and nail-biting craftiness, I have learned to laugh whenever possible. To tread sad news in company, to find comfort in a hug, and to celebrate life despite adversity.
Creativity pulses in both my paternal and maternal lineage. With an inventor and music-loving father, a mother with a keen eye for design and unforgettable experiences, a chef older brother with a uniquely sarcastic tongue, and another, a wizard in adventures, computing, concepts, and philosophy. Generations of thinkers, inventors, and artists, including in an extensive network of relatives, have continually enriched my life with their diverse talents in various roles such as actors, poets, photographers, florists, engineers, storytellers, and humorists as natural as professional. This lineage of singulars have imbued in me similar appetites, that I consider necessary and a fortune to connect with one another.
Now over to Rebecca Avellino to get her take…
How did the collaboration with María Dusamp for the "Hilos" exhibition come about? What drew you to her work and the themes she explores?
I've been searching for a new artist to feature in the small business I run and do hair out of for about a year. At SaraJune, we often showcase the work of local artists on our walls to support the thriving artistic community in Gowanus, Brooklyn. We love to feel inspired by the vibrant, powerful images around us as we do hair. Maria's work captivated me the moment Veronica from Domingo Comms introduced it to me. The numerous faces, movements, and stories woven into her epoxy and mixed-media sculptures, representing hair, create a striking contrast with what we do as hairstylists. We work with the delicate lives and looks of many incredible people daily, and I feel Maria’s pieces bring together this representation well. The themes of lost innocence and womanhood are conveyed with such boldness and strength that they resonated so deeply with me and our community of stylists.
What do you believe makes SaraJune Salon an ideal venue for "Hilos"? How do you think the setting of a hair salon in Brooklyn complements and enhances the narrative María is presenting through her sculptures?
SaraJune is the perfect venue for ‘Hilos’ because Maria's work connects us to our past through these hair-like threads, while also pulling us into the future. Just as we shed or cut away the past, we move forward, using the medium of cut and color as stylists to forge new beginnings. Additionally, the color scheme—soft roses, bright yellows, and gentle greens—complements our greenhouse suite salon beautifully. Maria’s sculptures are courageous, open to interpretation, and monumental statements that encourage us to question and explore the concepts of femininity and masculinity in our works. Although our physical space is relatively small, Maria’s works expand the energy within it. We are so thankful to have met her!
