The gift (Clizia), human hair and cotton, 2023.

The first time I brought up the idea was during a stroll down the hill towards Liège. Clizia found the idea disturbing. Months later, we were talking again about it, about how difficult it was to donate one’s hair, about the implications of such a gesture, about giving. One evening, she told me that she had cut part of her long hair so that
I could weave it. Later, she brought me all her hair. I decided to weave two pieces together. I wanted to focus on the gesture of giving: to her who gave me her hair,
I wanted to return a part of it in the form of her portrait made of her own matter. The day came when I had access to the loom. She came to see the process. Hair
being a fragile material, the weaving was difficult. She stayed to help : she untangled her hair, which I then passed in strands of ten onto the loom’s weft. In this way, we wove the two pieces together, talking about the portrait and the self-portrait and the gesture of making together. Once woven, I had to separate them one line at a time. I found her idea of exhibiting them together interesting. Hung together, the two images resemble the mane of a strange animal whose intimacy we have approached too closely.

Work made possible in collaboration with Texblab Wallonie Design.




Some photos of the weaving process: