Matthew Ritger '10: His curtains wrecked the catwalk facetime on First Floor Berry, so I guess I learned a lot about the more subtle nuances of the art of library-slutting. Nothing about installation art, ethnicity or globalization though. Just slutting.
Jessica Krug '11: Wenda Gu's exhibit really broadened my perception of art ... in the sense that I stayed as far away from it as I could. While I champion creativity, I fail to see how what builds up in the bristles of my hairbrush over the course of a few months can be put in a league with the work of Michaelangelo and Picasso. My apologies to any Gu-rus out there, but I am glad to see Baker-Berry Library again as the house of books, not hair, the way that it should be.
A.J. Fox '09: I know I'm in the minority here, but I think that Wenda Gu's hair art has been the most exciting thing to happen to this campus since the demise of the shower towers. It's not exactly the most "pleasant" artwork I've ever seen, but does art really have to be liked to exist? From what I've witnessed, Wenda's hair exhibit has provoked a lot of really impassioned discussions on campus (okay, so most of them are in protest, but still ... ), and that seems to me like proof that it's a pretty indispensable work of art. And as an tour guide for the admissions office, I'm definitely going to miss the looks on those prospies' faces when I tell them what the tapestries in the library are made out of.
Brittany Coombs '10: There once was hair in Baker-Berry,
The presence of which was quite scary.
It was limp and entangling,
Mocking while dangling,
And the day that it left, we were merry.
Joe Indvik '10: Before Wenda Gu, hair was simply a filamentous protein outgrowth projecting from mammalian epidermis. After Wenda Gu, hair has become a filamentous protein outgrowth projecting from mammalian epidermis that can be colored and strung up along a busy corridor in a manner completely incongruous to the surrounding architecture. Clearly, that man has revolutionized art as we previously knew it. Or not.
Joe DeBonis '10: Baker-Berry has had the distinctive honor of hosting the work of a man who, quite frankly, engineered an artistic revolution in my own mind. Wenda Gu has taught me to recognize the art so often (tragically) ignored in my daily life. For example, the hair in my floor bathroom's shower drain; collected each week from over twenty-five filthy male bodies, this murky conglomeration should be revered, adored and displayed in a prominent public location! Or the greasy, brightly-dyed braids of the hippie girl who sits before me in French class: they should be strung into an interminable rope and hung obtrusively through doorways! Thank you, Mr. Gu, for your vision. It is one quite difficult to forget.
Allison Ruderman '10: If Wenda Gu's installation is art, then George Clooney's hairstylist is Picasso. His cropped, salt-and-pepper hair is nothing short of a masterstroke.
Sarah Frostenson '11:
A Haiku in Memory of Gu:
Frustrated old man,
Balding, "avant-garde" has been,
Try Rogaine next time.
Erin Choo '09: I'd say the lesson I learned would be "Don't touch the artwork." When the hair was first installed, a friend of mine was running her hands through the braids and half-bathing in them until I told her they were hair ropes. Then she ran out of the library screaming.
Ahra Cho '11: For all of those who haven't yet watched "The Grudge," there is a scene in the movie where Sarah Michelle Gellar pulls out yarns of the dead girl's hair from her mouth, and starts to scream and gag as the greasy black hair extends from the pits of her stomach. Wenda Gu's hair is the creepy "Grudge" hair reincarnated into modern-society, as the museum of dead hair follicles in the library leaves only a eerie feeling of disgust and morbid fascination in anybody that dares to look upon it. Thus, Dartmouth's pulling out the hair piece is laudable; like the hair in the grudge, and those collected in the shower, it is disturbing enough to be collected and thrown in the toilet and flushed away.
Marielle Battistoni '11: In addition to potentially spreading a campus-wide outbreak of lice, Wenda Gu can be thanked for giving hope to the ambitions of many aspiring artists. I personally have been inspired to create beautiful artwork out of other previously considered, but unjustly labeled "taboo," media. I have been visiting Upper Valley nail salons for the past few months, gathering nail clippings (what intricate works of dead tissue, discarded so thoughtlessly!) in preparation for a masterpiece, tentatively entitled "united cultures: toenail cultures" that I hope will soon be commissioned by the College as a natural follow-up piece.
Lily Ringler '11: The Gu hair inspired me to find art not only in the Gu hair itself, but also in all hair everywhere. Now, one of my favorite activities is to study the drain hair in my shower while contemplating life's greater meaning.
Divya Gunasekaran '11: Wenda Gu's exhibit in Baker-Berry Library has taught me that anything can pass for art these days. As an individual with a complete lack of artistic ability, I plan to take full advantage of the wondrous opportunity that Gu has presented to me. Replace talent with obscurity and controversy, and apparently you're headed down the path to sucess.
Thanks for the art lesson, Gu. I promise to invite you to my first exhibition; I'm thinking of displaying a bucket of dyed toenail clippings to reflect the perseverance of mankind's collective will in the face of adversity. What do you think?
