Willow Smith has shaved her hair off again, but this time in the name of art.
Willow Smith has shaved her hair off again, but this time in the name of art.
The 19-year-old Red Table Talk star teamed up with her musical collaborator, Tyler Cole, for a 24-hour performance about anxiety at the Museum of Contemporary Art's Geffen Contemporary in Los Angeles on Wednesday, which at one point, included Tyler cutting Willow's hair then eventually shaving her head. The performance showed Willow and Tyler going through eight stages of anxiety while inside a glass box, and on Friday, the pair's band, The Anxiety, released their self-titled debut album.
Willow's mom, Jada Pinkett Smith, proudly documented moments from her daughter's art performance on her Instagram Story.
"The start of the new beginning," she wrote with a heart emoji as Tyler cut Willow's braids.
More moments during the art performance that Jada captured included Willow dancing in bunny ears and writing on a wall. The "Whip My Hair" singer also held up a sign that read, "When you practice patience ... you are emulating the ... very spirit of nature."
Jada later posted video of Tyler shaving Willow's hair off, and referenced Willow famously shaving her head when she was 11 years old.
"@willowsmith at her interactive experience," Jada wrote. "My baby shaved her head! Again!"
On Friday, Tyler reflected on the 24-hour performance.
"I'm going to need some time to process that experience before I really say anything but I will say thank you so much to everyone who came out to MOCA and watched the live stream," he wrote on Insgtagram. "I am truly overwhelmed. There is a lot going on in the world and I think THE ANXIETY reflects how a lot of us feel right now. So hopefully this music and the art we are creating can help you in any way even if it's just a quick distraction from all of this chaos. @theanxiety debut album out now."
Willow also posted about the new album and her experience, writing, "Special S/O to all the beautiful folks who came out to experience our performance art at The GEFFEN Contemporary @moca ❤️ it was truly a magical experience for me // I hope the vibrations from these songs soothes your heart like your love and support soothes mine."
In a 2018 interview with Haute Living, Willow's father, Will Smith, candidly talked about Willow shockingly shaving her head after the success of her hit, "Whip My Hair," and him having to learn how to let go of his expectations for her.
"One of the major things that happened is that I hit that midlife-crisis point, where I've built all of the things I've ever dreamed of," he shared. "And in my family -- 2012 I secretly call the year of the mutiny. And 2012 was really the year that my family rejected the direction of my leadership."
"Willow was really the first person during 'Whip My Hair' that decided she didn’t want to do what I said," he continued. "Because she was the baby girl, she really had the most power over me. As a man -- if your daughter says no, there's really nothing you can do. She really tested me. She was like, no she didn’t want to. She was done with 'Whip My Hair.' She was done with performing, and as a protest she shaved her head bald. That was really the first time that I realized that my family wasn't happy with the direction that I was taking them."
These days, he couldn't be prouder of who Willow has become, and how she carries herself during the frank discussions on Jada's Facebook Watch show, Red Table Talk.
"And in terms of Willow, I just love that she gets to sit at that table with her mother and grandmother and hear their life stories and their experiences and gets to sit and talk to brilliant people," he said. "It's a spectacular education for Willow. I'm humbled when I watch that girl hold her own on that red table at 18. And I also look at the red table and think, 'I'm doing something right.'"
Watch the video below for more:
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