Haircuts by Children
Mammalian Diving Reflex
Haircuts by Children is exactly what it sounds like.
Children from 8-12 years old are trained by professionals to cut hair, then they offer free haircuts at a pop-up salon in Eau Claire Market.
Haircuts is a performance about imaginative haircuts, power and trust; we challenge our audience to set their vanity aside, relinquish control, and trust that a 10-year-old has the creative ability, dexterity and responsibility to command a sharp pair of scissors. Ultimately it is also a performance about the intimate and rare moments shared between two very unlikely strangers – a child and an adult.
Mammalian Diving Reflex’s work occurs in public, collaborates with non-artists, and attempts to create unusual social contexts and situations that bring children and adults together as well as individuals from different socio-economic, geographic, cultural, and racial backgrounds who wouldn’t normally have the opportunity or reason to spend time together.
Co-Presented With
What they're saying:
"It’s about trusting our future generation with not just the hairs on your head but about understanding young people are capable of much more than we give them credit for."
- Chris Burns, Australian Education Minister