Kaela Murphy

my hair

Alberta Winner
University of Lethbridge
charcoal on paper 22.5 x 22 in 

My work addresses the centrality of hair to Black identity. As a culturally and politically charged signifier, Black hair elicits awe and abject response, both of which I have navigated throughout my life. Unsolicited commentary and touch, as well as personal questions from strangers, have fueled my approach around ethnicity and appearance. my hair examines how the removal of facial identifiers and engagement with hair pictorially and sculpturally affect interaction and emotion. In this drawing I explore the qualities of hair using rubbed charcoal marks, creating a figure that becomes its own body, tangling notions of the individual and universal experience.