This weaving from the series Homehold includes hair collected from dozens of friends and family starting in 2020. The piece is an ongoing DNA collective portrait of my relationships with people in combination with the detritus of acts of care (grooming) as well as considerations of the significance that our hair holds as part of our identity or as bodily waste. Further embedded in the use of hair are cultural traditions and ideas about discarding cuttings of hair (and how to discard them) vis a vis treasuring such cuttings (such as in Victorian mourning brooches).
Each time I weave another individual
’s hair into the tapestry becomes a renewed intimate act of care as well as a moment of intense reflection of our relationship, often accompanied by conversations. In addition to the hair, I collect and archive short biographies and statements from the donors as well as the notes and packages the hair was delivered with. Throughout the weaving process, I create relational constellations and intimacies via compositional structures between people that may or may not have met in person based on how they occupy space in my life.
