Touch Response Part 1

 Braided Maze

Photography and Photoshop

    

Quote: 

    “These days, to shock the bourgeoisie and establish their own identity, as every generation must, many young men and women wear their hair as freeform sculpture, with lacquered spikes, close-cropped patterns that resemble a formal garden maze, and colors borrowed from an aviary or spray-painted alley,” (Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses, 85).

Artist Statement:

     Hair has been treated by many individuals as a way to express their own creativity and personality. Touching, moving, dying, and styling hair offers humans the ability to customize their look beyond how they were naturally born. This quote explains this idea that hair is a statement for people to establish their place in this world, and become an individual as no one can have the same head of hair and it can always be customized according to one's style. For Braided Maze, I decided to intricately braid my peers' hair to resemble a maze and how complex a three-strand braid can get when you let your hands and mind roam free. To take this piece a step further I decided to photoshop the photographs to make my model's hair appear to be a grassy maze full of  flowers, bushes, and trees with a sign stating “No Way Out”. This was done to use her braids as a representation of the hedges in a maze, relating to the quote I stated above. Much like a maze, braids twist, turn, overlap, and take you on a journey.