Mitochondrial DNA within the hair shaft is passed from the pregant parent to their children. In this series of works, hair is used as a symbolic lens to reveal and interpret the tensions and bonds of maternal relationships. Where intricate patterns of hair are knitted, woven, sewn, sculpted, filmed - a maternal bloodline, and the rituals born from its lived relationships, are playfully examined as a way to uncover humorous, yet loving and even obsessive traits of intergenerational connection.

Mothers and daughters in my family have passed down unconscious, yet unquestioned (until now) ‘rituals’ whereby the women dye their hair red. As fate would have it, I was born ginger - with a bit of extra tinting here and there.  Yet the chopping and changing of the individual identities of five generations of mothers simultaneously demonstrates a (seemingly accidental) inheritance and collective identity beyond DNA. 

This body of work encompasses film, (It’s Not Perverse, It’s Mothers, 2022), a large hanging tapestry and ceramic/textile sculptures - or, vessels. Here familiar or expected outcomes are flipped, and instead what is offered is often distorted. Pots morph into unstable vessels, tapestries are loose and fluffy and in places incomplete.

Stills and information about It’s Not Perverse, It’s Mothers can be found under the experimental documentary page on this site. The film comically yet tenderly questions the same maternal ritual that informs my sculptural work, as seen below. Acting as a chaotic portrait, the film reveals the difficulties in attempting to recapture a familial story that can be too revealing or difficult to accept.

Appearing both joyful and bizarre, the delicate and ornate details of the work are subverted by the potential for disgust and bodily horror in the use of disembodied human hair - another humorous nod at the purity and absurdity of mother and daughter exchange.

                                                      

MINI-ME

14cm x 18cm, human hair, cotton, glazed stoneware
2022

VESSEL 11

4cm x 6.5cm, human hair, synthetic hair, glazed iron rich stoneware
2021 

  

 

   

❋ Made between 2019 and 2022, a large hanging tapestry, Big Mother, was created using only human hair which was donated by London hairdressers and individuals around the world through the artist’s social media callouts.  The hair was then bleached then dyed different shades of auburn.

The intrinsic link between weaving and creation, particularly birth, is seen throughout the folklore and mythologies of multiple cultures. A universal mythic trope suggests that weaving is a way to create a substance out of ones own body. The warp and weft symbolises the ‘tissues’ of the child’s body woven into the womb of the parent. 

   

    

DARK

30cm x 32cm, human hair, cotton, textured stoneware, pumice gel
2022

VESSEL 12

9cm x 8.5cm, human hair, cotton, stoneware
2022

               

   

   

All photographs with a white/grey background were taken by Benjamin Swanson.