Barbershop: The Art of Queer Failure is an interactive installation by artist Ace Lehner that reimagines the traditional barbershop as a queer community space. Throughout the performance, Lehner, who is not a trained barber but has been cutting hair in community settings for years, will offer haircuts on a first-come, first-served basis. In exchange for a haircut, each participant commits to carrying out an act of queer world-making that they will complete before it grows out. Barbershop draws on the idea of queer failure, a concept developed by scholar Jack Halberstam. Lehner suggests that failing to conform to societal standards opens up more creative ways of thinking and existing in the world. Here, failure is not about falling short—it is about making room for new possibilities.

Image: Ace Lehner, “Barbershop; The Art of Queer Failure”

BCA’s fall exhibitions are supported in part by the Maslow Family Foundation. Hospitality sponsors: Sugarsnap and Lake Champlain Chocolates. Burlington City Arts is supported in part by the Vermont Arts Council & the National Endowment for the Arts.