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Magnified Nexus
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nex·us
Pronunciation: 'nek-s&s
Etymology: Latin, bond, tie, from nectere to bind
: a connection or link between things, persons, or events esp. that is part of a chain of causation.
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From birth to death, we nurture a continuously evolving metamorphosis in our hair. The memories we create grow into thumbnail snapshots of our connective lineage. In the surreal softness of a baby’s first growth, or the surprising coarseness of a silver strand, our hair becomes a metaphor for our personal stories and experiences. Each lock of hair is recording and mapping out the cyclical history of our lives.
As individuals, we harbor secrets, untold stories, dreams and desires that we do not share with those closest to us; much like what is unseen to the naked eye in the natural world. In searching for our own identities, we seek to bridge these concealed sensibilities with our noticeable, outward characteristics and labels of who we are as people – daughter, wife, brother, mother. Upon closer investigation, we realize that behind our exteriors, we are each our own “self”, made up of intricate, woven layers born from our personal experiences that define us beyond our familial ties or age.
The twenty-two paintings of “magnified nexus”, created in 2005, are a representation of the specific physical characteristics found in locks of hair taken from members of my family. I collected hair samples from my immediate and extended paternal side, and then viewed my findings under a microscope. Through different levels of magnification and by manipulation of each slide under the lens, I looked for a unique sense of patterning and color found in the hair strands, in order to best represent the individual. I then rendered detailed drawings in colored pencil, which I used as studies for each oil painting. Wood panel was chosen as an alternative to canvas for it s aesthetic sensibilities as well as for the implications it has with nature and growth. The panels are installed in a traditional hierarchical order to illustrate that the individual panels have an identity of their own, but each is also a part of a larger organism.
Similar to the layout of the panels, I am linked to this group of people, yet not defined solely by this relation. In working on this project, I came to an inimitable closeness with each family member. By delicately handling the locks of hair of each person, I experienced a great sense of intimacy with their tangible exteriors. However, it was through the lens of the microscope that I became connected to their truest selves, to the never-ending storage of life stories and events found in a single strand of hair. |
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