Central Location is a context-responsive, interactive project offering free hair-cutting and shaving services to the public.

In Berlin, Ashery opened a Central Location barber’s shop for ten days, including the 1st of May, as an off-site project of the NGBK gallery and Künstlerhaus Bethanien. Ashery offered hair-shaving to the public while adopting the roles of different characters.

In Berlin the intention was to reflect the visual signifier of the skinhead found in gay culture as well as in neo-fascist circles. Central Location also acted as a social space where local children and adults stopped by for free tea and a chat. shaving hair is also a cheap way to cut hair. Lee Adams and Oliver Frost were ‘gay skinhead’ performers who shaved and cut hair.

In the Window Galley at Charing Cross Road, as part of Ashery’s MA degree show, London, Ashery’s mobile-phone number was visible to the public, so that anyone could call, book an appointment and be escorted into the building  to have their hair cut or shaved. Generally, entrance to the building is restricted to appropriate card-holders only. Admittance to the art courses in the school is competitive, expensive and hence relatively exclusive. The window gallery exhibits works mostly by Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design students. Central Location was designed to offset the divide between the art-school building with its inhabitants inside, and the street with its inhabitants outside.