Hair as Material
Critical Path Space Residency 2021
May 31 - June 11
I use hair in different ways, as metaphor, to transform physical and social spaces, within which I access different entity-embodiment processes through movement, gesture and voice. From a premise that all human living is performed, the concept/method values the body as an anatomical library and memory device; an embodied line of inquiry which accesses cultural/familial re-membr-ance combined with animistic rituals that inspire (re)-invented entities from fragmented mythologies.
“No-thing, No-face, No-where”
The above theme was going around in my head…
I have also been reading The Fate of Place by Edward S. Casey. This tiny section disturbed me and I have paraphrased it (rightly or wrongly) for myself: “…the place-bereft individuals; that predicament is one of place-panic…can undermine the personal and collective identity…[which leads to] practices of place fixing and place-filling; public rituals reenacting cosmogenesis OR obsessive private rituals.
It raised questions: Is the “not-eternal, not-permanent” state so painful and fearful a reality that it causes humans to exhibit delusional behaviours and create belief systems to avoid, to delay accepting this fact? Is this why most of us have an innate need of belonging to place? How do I bring familiar rituals and enact them to temporarily soothe my feelings of being bereft of place? When can I come to terms with the realisation that my ancestors and I have been divested of place so long ago that we have forgotten the fact?…
Film-maker & Collaborator, Sam James
Sam James came in towards the last couple of days to collaborate as a filmmaker and co-concept maker. Strangely reminiscent of puppetry, below are some images Sam videoed of me ‘narrating’ some hair pieces held between two glass sheets; using a pair of metal chopsticks and a bent wire to manipulate them, with some difficulty. He commented that the attempt to control the form of the hair pieces creates (an almost infinite number of) incidental narratives. The technique is evasive, providing alternate answers as one is constantly solving the problem of maneuvering them.
