Equilibirum V
2021, Marble and mother's hair, 16 x 13 x 11"
Hair has the weight-for-weight strength of steel. Yet we equate hair with femininity and fragility, forgetting that this femininity can mean strength, too – a strength that resides in its very flexibility, in being able to bear much more than it appears. A strength that doesn’t show itself in solidity, but in softness.
The sculptures in this series are highly minimal: arrangements of stone held in unlikely equilibrium by almost-invisible strands of my own hair, creating a tension between the sculptural forms, between hard and soft, masculine and feminine. Collected during the period of hair loss following the birth of my child in 2019–a common bi-product of soaring hormone levels during pregnancy–these hairs speak to the uncanny union of strength and delicacy that is the maternal body. In pregnancy, every aspect of our organism becomes an active participant in motherhood–not only the more explicit forms of breasts and belly and sex, but even the most seemingly inconsequential: our eyes, our skin, our hair.
The physical improbability of the works speaks also to the psychological impact of motherhood, in which one’s multiple identities–mother, daughter, lover, artist, professional–are set in precarious and ever-shifting opposition.