Out of Time, Out of Place, 2025
Wood, Paint, Concrete
Pin – 52” x 6” x 2.5” Base – 18” x 15” x 11”
This little plastic pink object (which I’ve made big) is a Goody Brand Hair Roller Pin Fastener.
1970s, because of injection molding and thermoforming, plastic goods could be produced quickly and cheaply, making items that used to be a luxury more accessible to people from all walks of life. Also, in the 1970’s home permanents became popular. And growing up with three sisters and and a mother, these little pink objects pervaded our house. The pins were designed as the object that held a hair wrapped roller tightly close to ones head long enough for the chemicals and heat to curl the hair…they held it together.
These bold colored pink pins are so specific to the this time that I’m not sure many people may not know what they are…or were…or are. No one in my family has given themselves a home permanent in probably 35 years but I still see these pins in the junk drawer of my parents home…they persist.
They persist as relics of a different time, sitting somewhere between the sacred and the profane. There is power in an object that can take you to another place and time…a time traveling device. A champion in the battle against ones own hair. A stalwart aide in the independence of one to take beauty into their own hands…literally.