A Loss of the Individual
Dryer lint, human hair, animal hair
2021
In A Loss of the Individual, the piece's materiality and the laborious process of its construction form the content of the work. I collected dryer lint, human hair, and animal hair from others as well as myself, and needle felted all of the pieces together by hand on a square cloth. I view the materials used as residual fragments of individual people that have been left behind. It is a version of them that is not whole but tells a short narrative about them from one moment in time. These abject fragments of the body are indicators of the people who once bore them as a part of their self. Now that they have been severed, they are not completely human anymore, but are evidence of human presence. I believe that these cast-off fragments are indicators of who we are, or who we were in a moment. They are identifying factors, even if not indicative of our whole selves, similar to data in the digital realm.