Hotshot hairdresser Dixon Tabla holds a brown nude female figurine made of Indonesian hibiscus wood and turns it in every direction. He is demonstrating that because the arms and legs are spread wide apart–and just at the right angles–the sculpture can be put down on a table in any position and still stand securely.
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Tabla and Law and scores of other people are standing in the Carey South hair salon on East Oak Street, which has been transformed temporarily from a trendy salon–chic black glass counters, stark white walls, bare wooden-plank floors, and floor-to-ceiling picture windows overlooking the street’s cool boutiques–to a trendy art gallery. It is opening night of the salon’s first art exhibit, and 150 pieces of contemporary Indonesian art are on display.
There are watercolors of everyday-life scenes in the rice paddies of Indonesia, and pen and ink and temperas of exotic religious ceremonies. There are batik sarongs and large black-stained wooden spoons. There are wooden marionettes and wildly painted wooden masks. Everything’s hanging everywhere, covering, for tonight at least, the telltale signs of the business of $60 haircuts.
A hairdresser for 17 years, Tabla was encouraged to visit Indonesia by a friend who had been taken with the place. Like his friend, Tabla also fell in love with the culture. When he found out that a traveling Indonesian culture festival would be bypassing Chicago due to booking problems, he decided to make up to area residents by hosting a mini-fest of his own. His boss Carey South, an enthusiastic supporter of the arts, welcomed the idea.
South says he doesn’t think clients will mind having their hair done for a brief time in an Indonesian art gallery. He says because he chooses employees who are supporters of the arts, all of their clients are, too. “This kind of thing hasn’t been done anywhere else,” says South. “This is Dixon’s baby, and if we didn’t have this exhibit, we’d have to live with white walls.”
