Botak!
“‘My hair has never been cut,’ he said. ‘I have been dedicated to God as a Nazirite
from the time I was born. If my hair were cut, I would lose my strength
and be as weak as anybody else.’”
- Samson in Judges 16:17
The act of shaving ones head has been seen as an act of sacrifice or the relinquishing of power from one person to another. Early examples of head shaving date back to ancient Egypt and Greece where well-kept long hair was a sign of status and wealth. If you were of a lower status, your head would be shaved. In Buddhist and Christian practices, monks would undergo some form of head shaving during their ordination to show their commitment to their beliefs. Hair in this case becomes a symbol of attachment to the physical world. In Singapore, the Children’s Cancer Foundation organizes an annual event called, Hair for Hope. At this event, people pledge to shave their heads in order to raise funds for the organization. By doing so, they not only help to contribute financially to the cause but also morally support the children who themselves have lost their hair due to chemotherapy.
The shaving of one’s hair is also a symbol of punishment and degradation. Across the world, prison inmates have their heads shaved as a form of punishment and for hygienic purposes as this prevents the spread of lice. The practice of shaving heads has long been used in the military and boot camps for juvenile delinquents. In Singapore, this is done mainly for new recruits and hair that is kept has to follow military standards which is about 3-4cm of hair on the top of the head. As a Singaporean male having to undergo conscription, the shaving of our heads signifies our surrender to the state for the duration of our national service. This symbolic act is however put in the hands of a rather insignificant character, the barber.
In this performance, I wanted to recreate this defining moment of my national service. I went out into a public space dressed as how a recruit would be dressed and invited people to cut or shave my head with a scissors or shaver. In doing so, I was subjecting a transference of liability upon the participants who came forward. By doing this, even though the perception was of a loss of control on my part, in actual fact, I retained the control of the performance.
Botak is Malay for bald. It is used colloquially in Singapore to
describe a bald person or someone with a short crew-cut.
