Your Beauty is Our Concern: Trevor Stuurman

Through the act of making oneself beautiful, one claims a place in society. Beauty and glamour — often two sides of the same coin — have long been seen as tools to overcome the body’s natural limitations as well as social and political constraints. Beauty can be inherent, as natural qualities aligned with whatever ideals are used to measure it, or acquired through stylization. Glamour, on the other hand, almost always requires effort and labour to craft. Together, these ideas shape both how we perceive ourselves and how we are seen by others.

Beauty, as elusive and uncontainable as it is, is often denied to others through oppression and exclusion. And yet the very practices involved in striving for it also contain immense potential for joy, courage, strength and community.

In his first solo exhibition at THK Gallery, Trevor Stuurman examines beauty—its potential and limitations—through a series of photographs that reflect his multidisciplinary practice in visual art, commercial photography and creative direction. The work celebrates beauty through hair-making rituals—braiding, styling, and intricate haircuts—drawing on long-standing traditions of beautification across continents and cultures. Brilliant in structure and deeply affecting in sensibility, the presentation portrays beauty not just as a process or practice but as a way of life. Beauty as ritual, as birthright and as strategy for survival.

The expansive understanding of beauty as a transformative, survivalist practice resonates with Christina Sharpe’s reflections on beauty as method. Writing for e-flux journal in 2019, Sharpe notes: “I’ve been revisiting what beauty as a method might mean or do: what it might break open, rupture, make possible and impossible. How we might carry beauty’s knowledge with us and make new worlds.” Sharpe recalls learning from her mother “...that beauty is a method, and that a vessel is also ‘a person into whom some quality is infused.’” Beauty, as Sharpe suggests, is not only an aesthetic that allows us to escape violence but also a means to survive it.

Stuurman’s work embodies this method, offering a nuanced exploration through two distinct modes of expression: stylized studio portraits showcasing various hairstyles and haircuts alongside documentary-style images of salon and barbershop interiors and exteriors. While the language differs in each body of work, the underlying integrity remains the same. The latter set of images feels more natural, while the former is more performative, where performance can be thought of as a kind of “reaching towards what is possible.” The work evokes practices such as scarification, body painting, and African design languages alongside traditions like those seen in soccer, where players mark their hairstyles with specific motifs. At the same time, the work highlights the skill and artistry of hairdressers and barbers, demonstrating incredible talent and a deep commitment to their craft.

‘Beauty as Birthright’, like the practices it documents, is deeply communal. The exhibition space itself is curated to evoke the feeling of hair salons and barbershops found in towns and cities across the continent—spaces that have evolved from informal gatherings for braiding and sharing of life ideas and beauty secrets to vital hubs for socialization, cultural expression, and economic empowerment. These salons and barbershops serve not just as safe spaces but as expansive environments where conversations about life, politics, and the human condition unfold, providing a form of communal therapy.

This sense of community and cultural exchange is further reflected in Stuurman’s engagement with the contemporary moment. In a nod to contemporary local design, one image features a hairstyle depicting South African designer Wanda Lephoto’s “Mother and Child” motif from his Spring/Summer '24 collection alongside symbols from brands like Lacoste, Adidas, Nike, Puma, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton. This juxtaposition highlights Stuurman’s commitment to reclaiming and celebrating African cultures, histories, and aesthetics while also engaging critically with the contemporary realities of aspiration and access.

‘Beauty as Birthright’ celebrates an expanded vocabulary for beauty— thinking of it as a measure of its own necessity. Here, Black Beauty is in full flight, asserting its inherent value.

Nkgopoleng Moloi