SAMSON

In the biblical myth of Samson, hair is cut as an act of betrayal, severing power from the body.

Rakovic reimagines this story through the feminised ritual of shaving the leg. Positioned between two mirrors, the work stages the bathroom as a site of invisible labour, vulnerability, and self-fashioning – where rituals of care are entangled in discipline and control.

Violent patriarchal beauty standards continue to govern the body, and Rakovic asks whether one’s private life can ever truly be apolitical.

In preparation for the work, Rakovic shaved her body for the first time in three years, and offers up the hair at the site of the installation.

This work was shown at the RCA 2026 Grad Exhibition as part of the MFA Arts & Humanities programme.