Sculptures of Spring '08

Emily Bzdyk

Project 1- Process

The process of making dreadlocks is one I have become very familiar with. Different hair qualities make the process easier or quicker, but for the most part all hair can be made to lock up eventually. The process is tiring, time consuming, and takes patience and commitment. My hair happened to be fine and rather straight, it poses an extra challenge that it is rather short as well. So needles to say it’s been difficult so far, and the road ahead promises more struggle and work. The process itself includes the initial tangling, backcombing and addition of wax. This is followed by weekly activities of palm rolling, twisting, and clockwise rubbing of the hair. There are also many ways to make this easier by using rubber bands and other special products.
So when I started thinking about this project in the context of art making I had many ideas. I began by collecting wire, a material which I enjoy working with and one which mimics hair in some ways. Following the idea of different hair and ways it behaves, I constructed the first part of my work. It is a twisted tangle of three kinds of wire. I twisted the wire around itself in a variety of ways, mainly turning the base of the tangle as the strands of wire were spooled onto the mass. I discovered several things during this activity. The thicker wire held its position better but did intertwine as closely as the other smaller wires. The two other kinds of wire did not maintain their shape or position as well, but their size allowed them to squeeze into the available spaces. At the end I smeared petroleum jelly on the wires. This substance reminded me of the wax, and had a beautiful quality to it, as it was sticky and almost stringy. It was very fun to work with. This initial exploration of materials mimicked the initial formation of a dread. I also began to think about organization of the strands of hair. A brush is used to align the hairs on the head, it passes through the strands, separating and smoothing them together. The untouched spooled wire had this quality of organization before I worked it into the twist.

I then moved on to a new material. I was very happy with how this next phase went. The material I choose was a black sheer fabric. I examined it and almost immediately began to pluck it apart. I planned on extracting the strands to further explore the idea of moving from an organized presentation of the strands (a weave) to disorder of loose strands and tangled threads. What I discovered about the unraveled fabrics was it was made up of two kinds of thread. It was perfect. One strand running in one direction was very thin and soft. It was wispy and impossible to pull out. The opposite angled threads were coarse and wiry. They looked exactly like the right kind of hair for making dreadlocks. I experimented with different ways of pulling the threads apart and discovered many little movements of my fingers that made things easier or harder. The idea of taking orderly arranged strands and creating chaos of tangled hair is the essence of making dreadlocks. Yet as the dreads come together there is a new sort of order. I used both strands to illustrate how each could be made to tangle or form larger conglomerates. The coarse wire hairs were the only easily removable ones and worked the best for tangling. Yet the other softer fibers twisted well and held together because of their lightweight nature. I created some traditional dreads form the coarse fibers, and I used my dread comb to mimic the dreading process, and used my rubber bands to gather the materials. I then continued to explore the ways the two fibers tangled in clumps. The fine fibers made tubular twist and the coarse ones formed more matt like fibers in their natural accumulation.

I then return to the unraveling process, and for the critique I would like people to, if they wish, try to pull two threads out. I have found two threads are easy enough but provide enough resistance to make the process a challenge. The trick is to keep the strand from breaking (much like the dreading processing) but to use enough force to remove it from the orderly configuration. As it leaves the weave it shakes the other threaded creating various interesting ripple effects. I think there are many things to be experienced and read into the deconstruction/construction process of fabrics and threads or strands. There are many parallels between this and the dreading process, and I have found this to be a rewarding exploration that reminds me of how many individual elements go into the making of larger things, and how often this is repeated in everyday life.