Studio Sanne Visser

24 Sept

Written By Vickie Hayward

Studio Sanne Visser
Locally Grown
Exhibition, 2024

Photo by Rocio Chacon

Haircut station setup. Photo by Rocio Chacon

Rein Reitsma having his hair cut. Photo by Rocio Chacon

Photo by Rocio Chacon

Hair being spun into thread. Photo by Rocio Chacon

Various thread colours made from hair. Photo by Rocio Chacon

SANNE-VISSER-HairCycle-Material-Matters_photoby_Rocio-Chacon_-49.jpg

Seating by Wilkinson & Rivera. Photo by Rocio Chacon

Hat by Rein Reitsma. Photo by Rocio Chacon

Bio Crafted testing Studio Sanne Visser's hair rope to rebuild coral reefs. Photo by Rocio Chacon

Sanne Visser's mirror frames 'A Suit To Remember Me By' by Lauren Macdonald

Textile art demonstrating crochet techniques with real and synthetic hair by Mia Rodney. Photo by Rocio Chacon

Homewares by Helen Kirkum Studio

Exhibition curation for Studio Sanne Visser, ‘LOCALLY GROWN’ is an interactive exhibition by Studio Sanne Visser and HairCycle that invites visitors to explore their hair as a new material with great potential.

Recycling human hair waste is a regenerative, local, bio-based and circular model that is also super scalable. The material can last up to 6000 years in the right conditions and equally be industrially composted in 6 weeks.

Currently operating out of Newham, the HairCycle team collects hair from local salons and barbershops. Diverting hair is waste from choking drains, filling landfill sites, and releasing harmful greenhouse gases. The installation at Material Matters Fair offered a chance to experience the full journey from fibre to product through live hair cuts, spinning, rope-making demonstrations. We worked with the studio to curate a new series of collaborative design objects. These were presented alongside ongoing research projects that are trialing this material in marine, landscape and built applications to address some of our most urgent environmental issues.

This strong and versatile material holds huge potential, the exhibition served as an important opportunity to get it into the hands and imagination of others.

Company
Studio Sanne Visser, HairCycle, Helen Kirkum Studio, Working Cloth, Mia Rodney, Rein Reitsma, Wilkinson & Rivera, R-urban Poplar, public works, Urban Radicals, Bio Crafted, Coral Gardeners & Dutch Embassy in the UK.