The first work below is a new series of hair weavings, similar to previous work, but sized to match the paper works which follow. The paper works, Violence, Abjection and Ecstasy, were shown in the Hate and Envy and Crime and Darkness and Pain show that I had at Kudos Gallery last year (see this post for some images from that show). They're matched by colour and size, but also similar themes. I don't want to write too much about the hair works yet as they're still percolating in my unconscious, but I'm thinking of links with the Holocaust (a recurring theme with my hair works) and the cloth that was made which included human hair from the concentration camps. The tentative title I've been using is The Devil's Cloth which refers to striped cloth (see this post for more info). I've used hair from the same people whose hair is in Six Degrees, but I'm not using the names in this series. The idea of individuals in groups is still relevant, but not the memorial aspects of the previous work.
The hair weavings also contain ideas of re-use and recycling, transforming a waste product into art. The paper works are hand-made paper that was buried and/or placed in compost with various materials and allowed to stain and acquire an instant "history," resembling materials which are described as having a wabi-sabi aesthetic. The stitching is the "ecstasy" part of the title, the Apollonian pattern and order on the Dionysian staining and randomness. Both series attend to this idea of bringing order from chaos, an alchemical transformation of base materials into gold.
All the works are approximately 16x16cm, except the last hair weaving which was the last of the series. I used up the last of the spun hair that I had. It may not be included as part of the series.
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