Toupée (2023)
Performance, 12 hours

“On 1/28/2023 I shaved off my mustache, and then spent 4 hours gluing it back on. For the following 8 hours I wandered around Stockholm with a ‘real’ fake-mustache, being photographed as the artist ‘Neil Bhat’. Paranoid and followed by a camera, waiting for someone to notice that the mustache was fake and call me out. Feelings of imposter syndrome while attempting to interact with friends and coworkers. Constructing an identity one hair at a time, trying to keep it from falling off as it froze in the winter air.

Met some friends for drinks at a cocktail bar later in the evening, went to the bathroom and came back without the mustache. They didn’t know what to do.

 The replacement (the poem) came later, for the show at Ebeling. In 2024 I started erasing all of my old drawings, leaving only traces. I’m up to several hundred sheets of worn out paper now- only the essential marks remain. An erased archive. When did my practice become a vanishing act? “

Toupée was documented with 45 photos on film. A selection of the resulting photos were exhibited for the first time at Ebelingmuseet in the group exhibition Ruptur. At the opening of the exhibition the original poem The replacement (2023) was performed for the audience, finishing in a grand reveal; removing yet another “real” fake mustache, this time on stage. The replacement (2023) has been performed at Marabouparken Konsthall, and Dopamin #1. The Erased Archive (2024) continues to grow.