The braid weave

I once had a braid that reached halfway down my thighs. My mother and grandmother wouldn’t let me cut it. They often spun a tale that my power and feminine beauty lay within it—the kind of hair they had always dreamed of. I felt this Braid weighing me down; it was much more than just a girlish hairstyle. One day, I decided to cut myself off from it. Although a bald head gave me a sense of agency, it did not resolve my internal conflict of belonging. Years later, I return to this amputated piece of myself, trying to understand the weave of our generations and the nature of the gift that is the relationship of mothers in my family.

Work on this project began during an art residency at the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko Sculpture Everywhere program an art residency at Banská St a Nica Contemporary in Slovakia, under the Culture Moves Europe program (Goethe-Institut).