Vestiges

 Janine Antoni Loving Care, 1993 "In Loving Care, Antoni mopped the floor of the gallery with her hair soaked in Loving Care hair dye “Natural Black.” The artist’s actions conjured up the expressive marks of Abstract Expressionist painting, linking them to the chore of mopping. As she claimed the space, the audience was slowly backed out of the gallery." http://www.janineantoni.net/#/loving-care/

 Hair Memento (?)  an object kept as a reminder of a person or event. Vestige (?) a trace or remnant of something that is disappearing or no longer exists. Untitled is the exploration of something left behind, or the sense that someone or something was there.

"A vanitas is a symbolic work of art showing the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death, often contrasting symbols of wealth and symbols of ephemerality and death." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanitas Wilted flowers with hair 23/02/2021

What is my theme? I was thinking about myself and how i cut my hair off and I looked at forums online of people talking about cutting their hair off and various articles about having haircuts after bad breakups etc And I think it has something to do with feeling detached from yourself, and i was thinking about hair holding memories Going back to the house in hereditary... Each room represented a traumatic event within the family, if I were to use a dolls house I could take this idea and have rooms represent stages in life, and cover them in hair. Memento Mori inspired sketch, time passing, clock made from hair 23/02/2021  

 

 Detachment  Memory

Cow hair on wire fence 22/02/2021  

 " Inspired by photos from my sister's trip to Yellow Stone, I intuitively made  hotspot  while experimenting with onionskin dying paper and sewing human hair. The juxtaposition of precision and chance creates a tension that humans feel when it comes to the unpredictability of mother nature" https://dianejacobs.net/work/270 " For me, hair represents humanity and is a rich material thick with history, genetics and societal taboos. I use hair in the form of hairballs, locks, sewing thread, matting, and weaving fiber." hotspot, onion skin and human hair, 2016

 " The object  Carpet , made out of multi-coloured hair, completes the exhibition. It brings historical connotations – the Holocaust and images familiar from concentration camps. The sight of cut hair can be repulsive. A carpet as an object is part of our everyday life, as is a printed wall pattern, with a long plait of hair snaking against its background. The interior has been arranged as a living space. The artist placed her hair objects in a mundane environment as an attempt to drive home the connotations of death and oppression that hair acquired in the 20 th  century, in the context of the Holocaust." https://en.mocak.pl/her-hair KRYSTYNA PIOTROWSKA Her Hair 2014 Similar works Tropos Hair 1993 Ann Hamilton hair, dried herbs alyson pou

" The idea of these graphite drawings and ink paintings is about humor, beauty and repulsion.  To me, long hair not only looks beautiful, but sometimes it can be very unattractive in particular settings such as hair in the hamburger, egg, wineglass, cigarette, toothpaste and sink. I combine hair and daily used objects to evoke different feelings and emotions through a surrealistic approach." https://www.hongchunzhang.com/hairy-objects  paper 2007

 "Mindy Yan Miller’s installations, sculpture and performative pieces investigate labour, identity, loss and commodification. Primarily a material and medium based practice, Yan Miller often works with large masses of found or ready-made materials including used clothing, human hair, coke cans and most recently cowhide." https://mindyyanmiller.com/home.html Hair wall 1993

 " I find interest in works that are unheroic: quieter, contemplative, more likely to offer questions than provide answers. My material choices often reference the body: hair and hair-like fibers, wax, and paper. Our bodies, and these materials, record information--some of it encoded in the very substance and stuff, while other evidence is a memoir of nurture (or lack thereof) within the context of nature." https://andymauery.com/home.html  hair as sensory, ability to touch hair as memento

 Hair as character? To overcome obstacles surrounding lockdown regarding models, an obvious way around is to focus the hair on objects rather than people.  This thought process led me to an article discussing the house in Hereditary (2018). Ari Aster, director of Hereditary (2018), wanted to 'achieve a dollhouse aesthetic' within the film (Topel 2018). The set was built from scratch, enabling the crew to remove walls and create wide shots looking into each room of the house (Topel 2018). This creates an unsettled feeling for the viewer, as it makes the characters seem helpless to their fate, like dolls in a dollhouse.  'Jung had a famous dream in 1908 that he included in his autobiographical book, “Memories, Dreams, Reflections”. “I was in a house I did not know, which had two storeys. It was ‘my house’. I found myself in the upper storey, where there was a kind of salon furnished with fine old pieces in Rococo style. On the walls hung a number of precious old paintings....

 Hair where it doesn't belong: Body hair - the definition of abject is something that has been cast off, or something bad. Hair that has been cast off becomes abject or bodily substance. Since body hair does not belong in society, body hair itself may be viewed as abject.  Hair in place of something feminine or beautiful, for example Julie Curtiss uses contradictions in her paintings and uses hair next to feminine symbols such as red nails.  Hair Steam 16/02/2021  Reminiscent of Object  Méret Oppenheim 1936