Contemporary Hairwork (L'Artisanat d'art du cheveu coupé)
Antonin Mongin is a Design PhD and a textile crafts-designer, specialising in the preservation or revival of rare or lost crafts and know-how.
The Contemporary Hairwork project (l’Artisanat d’art du cheveu coupé) aims to revive a craft practice that has been dormant since the beginning of the 20th century. This activity consists of entrusting Antonin Mongin with his own cut hair or that of his relatives so that he can design and create customised and personalised materials or objects made from these fibres. Once cut, the hair is no longer considered as waste, but as a precious raw material charged with memorial and symbolic values linked to the owner from whom it originates. These artefacts become tangible objects of memory, as an alternative to photography.
Weaving is one of the textile techniques proposed by Antonin to work with cut hair. He weaves them into a weft within a warp made of natural threads (such as silk, cotton or wool). Each material is unique, as it is made from a single hair donation. It is also possible to mix different types of hair if they belong to friends, lovers or different members of a family. The hair colour is not changed.
Making process
Each weaving is done by hand on a traditional weaving loom.
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.
Ingredients
Human hair, cotton, silk