The Entangled Self

Exploring the human body

The Entangled Self is a suite of 8 etchings printed directly from human hair which I made in 2014 with master printer Nigel Oxley. I am fascinated by the lines made by hair – tangled and untangled. Hair (or lack of it) is very much part of our identity. We grow up to eight meters of hair during our lifetime and have up to 150,000 hair follicles on our head. Hair is unique to mammals and grows a third of a millimeter a day.

These etchings continue my interest in the marks made by printing directly from the human body. For me such works expand and explore notions of human identity and portraiture. Hair produces extremely fragile lines – at the limit that you can capture on an etching plate. These thin lines reflect and represent our fragility.

My fascination with hair is not surprising as I was brought up in a hairdressing salon.
Hair (or lack of it) is very much part of our identity.