A Hairy Situation

Probably most interesting to me about these two clips is the correlation between hair and pain. It’s interesting that both of these performances use hair—a dead extension of ourselves—to cause or cover pain.

Marina Abramovic brushes, rips, and tears at her hair, and Ron Athey similarly takes a few tugs at his luscious locks. This is interesting when we consider what hair is. Hair has no feeling; when you cut it off your head you don’t feel pain. Therefore, pain only comes into play when that hair is attached to something else. To someone else. Perhaps this signifies that pain is something only experienced when appropriated with the self. In other words, pain cannot be felt unless attached to something personal. We don’t feel pain when hair is cut off, just like we don’t feel pain when someone we don’t care about makes fun of something unimportant to us.

This is especially interesting in the context of Ron Athey’s performance. His hair is merely a wig. He does not feel any actual pain from the brushing of his shiny golden hair, so the wig serves another purpose. Ron uses the wig to cover up his face…perhaps to cover up his pain. Again, something inanimate is used, and pain has no correlation to this inanimate wig.

Marina tortures herself as she rips at the hair that clings to her scalp. She receives a sort of sexual pleasure toward the end as she inflicts this pain on herself.

Perhaps all of this says something about pain and pleasure. Pain can only be felt when attached to something personal. And maybe pleasure can only be felt when it rings true to the self. Since pain and pleasure both correspond to a feeling associated within, the two correspond. Masochism may therefore not be a perversion of pleasure, but simply a related act of feeling something that relates to the self.