{"id":24060,"date":"2023-11-03T11:37:48","date_gmt":"2023-11-03T15:37:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=24060"},"modified":"2023-11-03T11:38:46","modified_gmt":"2023-11-03T15:38:46","slug":"gu-wenda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2023\/11\/03\/gu-wenda\/","title":{"rendered":"Gu Wenda&#8217;s &#8216;United Nations&#8217; Of Hair"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Chinese born, New York- and Shanghai-based artist Gu Wenda <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pem.org\/exhibitions\/gu-wenda-united-nations\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;United Nations,&#8221;<\/a> at Salem&#8217;s Peabody Essex Museum from April 1 to Nov. 5, 2023, fills the long, narrow, three-story tall atrium outside the museum&#8217;s maritime galleries with the 188 flags of the member states of the United Nations\u2014all made from human hair reportedly sourced from barber shops, beauty salons and individual volunteers on six continents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 2000 installation, titled &#8220;<em>united nations: man and space<\/em>,&#8221; is impressive upon first view, and  a bit creepy, and simplistic in its concept. The museum writes: &#8220;Using a material viscerally associated with the human body, this dramatic installation makes a powerful statement about what unites us as human beings across borders, racial, and political divides.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><em>If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/wonderlandlandfanclub\" target=\"_blank\">contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/subscribe\/\" target=\"_blank\">sign up for our free, occasional newsletter<\/a>\u00a0so that you don&#8217;t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9Greg Cook 2022 or the respective creators.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1170\" height=\"878\" src=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/picGu-Wenda_1843.jpg\" alt=\"Gu Wenda's &quot;united nations: man and space&quot; at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, 2023. (Greg Cook photo)\" class=\"wp-image-24096\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/picGu-Wenda_1843.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/picGu-Wenda_1843-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/picGu-Wenda_1843-370x278.jpg 370w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Gu Wenda&#8217;s &#8220;united nations: man and space&#8221; at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, 2023. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1170\" height=\"878\" src=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/picGu-Wenda_1840.jpg\" alt=\"Gu Wenda's &quot;united nations: man and space&quot; at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, 2023. (Greg Cook photo)\" class=\"wp-image-24098\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/picGu-Wenda_1840.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/picGu-Wenda_1840-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/picGu-Wenda_1840-370x278.jpg 370w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Gu Wenda&#8217;s &#8220;united nations: man and space&#8221; at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, 2023. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1170\" height=\"878\" src=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/picGu-Wenda_1842.jpg\" alt=\"Gu Wenda's &quot;united nations: man and space&quot; at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, 2023. (Greg Cook photo)\" class=\"wp-image-24097\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/picGu-Wenda_1842.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/picGu-Wenda_1842-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/picGu-Wenda_1842-370x278.jpg 370w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Gu Wenda&#8217;s &#8220;united nations: man and space&#8221; at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, 2023. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1170\" height=\"878\" src=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/picGu-Wenda_1837.jpg\" alt=\"Gu Wenda's &quot;united nations: man and space&quot; at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, 2023. (Greg Cook photo)\" class=\"wp-image-24099\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/picGu-Wenda_1837.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/picGu-Wenda_1837-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/picGu-Wenda_1837-370x278.jpg 370w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Gu Wenda&#8217;s &#8220;united nations: man and space&#8221; at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, 2023. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chinese born, New York- and Shanghai-based artist Gu Wenda &#8220;United Nations,&#8221; at Salem&#8217;s Peabody Essex Museum from April 1 to Nov. 5, 2023, fills the long, narrow, three-story tall atrium outside the museum&#8217;s maritime galleries with the 188 flags of the member states of the United Nations\u2014all made from human hair reportedly sourced from barber [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24100,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[1200,47,46],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24060"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24060"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24101,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24060\/revisions\/24101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}