Translating hair: materials and translations in Gu Wenda’s United Nations

This article seeks to demonstrate how the concept of translation can enrich our understanding of object and material agency in contemporary artistic practices, while contributing to the ongoing theoretical expansion of translation studies. It builds on recent developments in translation studies that expand the scope of translation beyond linguistic and literary domains to encompass material and experiential aspects of translation, where objects have emerged as a prominent subject matter. This intersects with contemporary art, as the material turn has also drawn attention to objects, their materiality, agency, and transformative capacities within artistic research and practice. This study mobilises translation as an analytical concept to examine how hair enacts multifaceted translation in Gu Wenda’s United Nations series. It aims to illuminate the mechanisms of material translation and material art, and the reinvention of Chinese artistic traditions in a contemporary global context.