Julie Rrap, 'Hairline crack', 1992, acrylic glass and hair, Installation dimensions variable.
It is fantastic to see JULIE RRAP'S key work 'Hairline Crack', 1992, installed among the permanent collection display at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Rrap first presented 'Hairline crack' in the 9th Biennale of Sydney. From a distance, the artwork resembles a black line drawn on the wall, evoking, perhaps, the work of Sol LeWitt, Mel Bochner or other artists associated with minimalism. On closer inspection, however, it is quickly discovered that the line is in fact made from an unruly excess of human hair.
The work might be seen to meditate on the tension between the organic and the synthetic or between order and chaos. The perfectly straight, level line reveals itself to be disrupted by something organic and unpredictable; a part of our bodies associated with beauty that is also cut and discarded.