Physical Fabrication

While this work was on view I observed how visitors interacted with the piece and took some notes. Here are my findings.

I initiated the project with the intention of developing my fabrication skills and wanted to make a large structure as a way to practice building and constructing. Once I began considering the materials that I would use, I thought of interesting textures and colors that I would want featured in my piece. I decided on synthetic braiding hair for its length and movement. 

While developing my materials list, I started to think about what braiding hair in its many forms means and represents to myself, and how that representation differs from people who do not look like me. As a Black woman who has braided my hair many times, braiding hair is an immediately recognizable material. I know that this recognition is something that I share with many Black people who may use this material in their hair for protective styles or for other stylistic purposes. I considered that this recognition is something that I may not share with the demographic of people who were most likely to visit the Undergraduate Exhibition. Black hair has a long politicized history and part of that narrative is non-Black people's fascination with hair that looks and feels different from their own. This fascination often leads to others crossing personal boundaries and touching Black people’s hair. This action to some is seen as inappropriate and a signifier of poor social awareness, while others do not recognize it as such. For this reason, I decided to make a hanging structure of hair and use it to examine social behavior of the people visiting the show. I went on to make the Wall of Hair out of braiding hair that I collected from Black womxn all over campus who had packs of braiding hair that was leftover from their latest styles.

Once I decided what my objective was, I knew what I was looking for from watching the attendees of the show. I wanted to see who would recognize the materials in my piece and who would not. Would people’s recognition of it spark any interesting interactions with the piece or with other people around them? Would anyone try and touch the hair, and if so what would other people’s reactions to seeing that be? Would one person’s reaction and or interaction influence someone else? Would anyone claim to understand what the piece was about and label it as political immediately, and for that reason make an obvious effort against touching it? Would anyone’s behavior change after reading my artist’s statement which described the piece as interactive?

On the opening night of the exhibition, some of my expectations were met, while other interactions and behaviors occurred that I did not consider initially. I saw some people trying to explain what the material was to others. One attendee turned to a friend and declared “Oh I know what it is, it’s a cornrow. Listen, it’s a corn row”. It was interesting to see some people try to make sense of my piece and ask each other for help on what it was supposed to be. The person explaining that my piece was related to cornrows, a specific braiding technique that was not present in my piece, made me conclude that some people will make an association of one thing that is Black to something else that they think is Black, without full understanding or knowledge of what that is. I related this to many people’s simplified understanding of Blackness. One person reached out to touch the piece, hesitated, went to read the artist statement, and then went back and touched it with intrigue and a smile on their face. This made me consider what the rules are for the space that my Wall of Hair occupied. Often in formal settings like art galleries with all white walls, visitors refrain from touching the pieces in the space and need permission to do so. So it was interesting to watch this happen in person, as well as compare this interaction with that of the many others who went to touch my piece without reading that it was interactive, therefore never getting permission to do so. What does that say about that person’s knowledge of museum and art exhibition etiquette? Also was the same level of hesitation that was given to other pieces in the show given to mine as well, and how much of that had to do with what my piece was made out of? Was this gesture of reaching out to touch without permission coming from the same fascination and even entitlement as the gesture of many to reach out and touch Black people’s hair without permission?

Later, one of my peers came up to me to share how much they enjoyed my piece. She then said, “I saw some people touching it though and I was looking at them like ‘what are you doing, do you know what this is?’ I was so mad for you!”. I was delighted by this interaction and was fascinated by the fact that this person made an effort to show me that they understood the underlying meaning of my piece and wanted my validation of their social awareness. I wondered how much of their comment was motivated by sharing their appreciation or rather wanting to show that they were politically conscious, which would make their act of sharing this experience with me preformative.

Each of the people in these situations were not Black. At the end of the night after looking at the rest of the pieces in the show, I returned to my Wall and saw that someone had braided some of the hair in different places of the piece. I was stunned, and felt a bit violated but was so. That by far was my favorite interaction that I had observed.

My Wall of Hair ultimately brought me to think about how much of a person’s perception of the piece was related to their knowledge of who made it. Whether people knew what I looked like, or recognized the material as braiding hair used mainly by Black womxn, the association to this piece as political was often immediate. I made this structure out of a material that I knew I would enjoy using for its form and vibrant colors. I was excited at the idea of building something using materials that were given to me by other Black Womxn on campus, making the project feel collaborative in a way. I made the piece with the opinion that the hair was not being used by anyone but was just hanging from the ceiling, possibly separating the material from its political association, and wanted to learn about if I would still feel that way after watching what happened to it once it was open for interaction. 

I would like to thank the UCLA Design Media Arts Department for showing my piece in the Undergraduate Exhibition, Jonathan Cecil and Madeline Isakson in the Fabrication Lab, my favorite space on UCLAs campus, for encouraging me and helping me develop the technical parts of my piece, my family for the emotional support and help with building the piece, and all of the Black women on campus who gave me the hair to make the Wall of Hair, it literally would not have been possible without them!