MaMA 

Care Bare is a speculative showroom that reflects upon the uncanny affinities found at the centre of these present-day phenomena.

With Care Bare, MAMA – in close collaboration with artist Mat Do and London hair salon DKUK – delves into these present-day phenomena that could be considered the contemporary addictions for which our society has an insatiable desire. The corporations that feed these addictions operate continuously and behind convenient facades, yet they pose a threat to our labour conditions, to the development of communities and to the ecology of our planet. All these platforms and concepts offer us nothing but an illusion of intimacy, authenticity and bespoke care.

Care Bare is a hybridized installation and a space of attention, taking the form of a speculative showroom. Like a snake biting its own tail, Care Bare contradicts its own reality by appropriating the vernacular of a hair salon – expecting to receive rehearsed participation from its visitor-customer.

Visitor-customers can comfortably rest in loungers next to mannequins that are partially dressed in customised pieces taken from the artist’s own wardrobe. Whilst a stream of magazines confirm the existence of the space, monitors screen a triptych of reworked Hollywood films by Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven; thereby acting as mirrors and serving as allegories of the enhanced human. Care Bare escapes full cynical collapse through the devotion found in its contents; it is a place wherein every hand-studded rivet and laser cut piece of leather counts.