Human hair

Materiality As Matter

Creating a memory through archaeological thinking and methodology is a practice that encompasses body and bodily materials such as human traces and hair — to reflect temporality. The aim is to orient and evaluate process based research within a reflexive framework through making.

The existence of this lifeless, untethered hair in the studio alludes to the history of its muted self. It also concludes that change may have suffered in physical condition with the tethered body over the years. This receptacle of memories has a gravitational force that holds time, image, and sound. It also contains some unprocessed experiences that our conscious mind works hard to repress.

Can we excavate a memory?


The idea is to seek, learn, and appreciate the entire agency of hair – as a living matter. What happens when this vital materiality is seen through the materiality of the past?

Making art is the process of excavation and preserving the dynamic transformation of sense. Could we also posit this process as a source of listening to the past to excavate another interior space, where listening becomes a way of digging? 
Digging is about to resuscitate that fierce silence flouncing around—it transcends possession and accumulation. This focus on silence distorts the emphasis on tangible evidence and allows for invisible but active acts of provocation. Echoes—that bounce off the walls of our minds—retain a trace of bygone events, like a repressed recollection of shared experiences. It defies ownership and integrates hidden reservoirs of silence for self-contemplation.

Text submitted by the maker and edited by the Future Materials Bank. For information about reproducing (a part of) this text, please contact the maker.