ABSTRACT
Hair in all its states signals the point where animality emerges on our body. The fear of hair is above all the fear of the other: from the satyr to the shaggy devil, from the god Pan to the werewolf, pilosity indicates the unbridled sexuality of the man-animal. Its depilation is related to the most secret origins of the organic and signals a domestication of femininity. Disguise and reversal of sexual roles, when considered in relation to the way the cultural construction of gender is correlated to the relationship between the sexes, does not necessarily challenge the aesthetic canon of the nude. Hair stops the gaze, it holds our attention, prompts people to take a closer look. Hair is neither flesh nor mood; it is easily detachable, or even transposable in the case of the hairpiece. The contemporary video artist Katarzyna Kozyra parodied Olympia by presenting this canonical Nude as a Venusian beauty who had lost her hair.
