Seven makers from across the creative fields propose fantastical celebratory headwear.
Rakeem Cunningham
The artist Rakeem Cunningham’s tender self-portraits, photographed within fabric-draped sets he builds in his Los Angeles studio, celebrate every aspect of himself, including his Blackness and his queerness. One other such trait he’s learned to appreciate and reframe is the fact that he enjoys smoking weed, which is why Cunningham’s party hat, a deconstructed baseball cap that he’s covered with white polyester fiber fill, looks, in part, like a fluffy haze of smoke. “It just made me think of being on cloud nine, being elevated and just really enjoying life,” says Cunningham, 31, who has a solo exhibition on view at Schlomer Haus Gallery in San Francisco. The hat, he says, “is definitely something meant to be worn by Black people.” Central to his practice, he continues, “is the relationship between Black people and bodies and fantasy. I think it’s important for us as Black people to be able to exist in our own fantasy worlds, costumes and stories and — without guilt — take up space in fantasy settings that weren’t welcome to us.” The addition of red and black Afro picks, tied in place with wire, is a nod to Cunningham’s father, who died when the artist was 4 years old, and who gave him a similar comb, a memory that he still cherishes.
