Ed. note: Starting today, UHub will be posting Boston-area reviews of local cultural happenings and restaurants by Sasha Patkin of the Independent Review Crew, a new initiative of the nonprofit Online Journalism Project. Let us know what you think!

The introductory video to Gu Wenda's "United Nations" exhibit, currently on display in the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, states that a single strand of hair contains enough DNA to identify one of us from a billion of us. When the Chinese-born artist creates his pieces from the combined hair of thousands of people, therefore, his work becomes a collective portrait that both transcends and unites the singular human experience.