THE POLITICS OF VOICE
The Tale of Tresses
I graduated with an MA from the School of Jewellery and Silversmithing from Birmingham City University in 2017. During my time at BCU, I created work that drew on my experience as a Deaf Iranian woman with feminism, oppression and the forced wearing of the hijab [veil] in Iran.
As a woman in Iran, you are not allowed to uncover your hair, talk about feminism or sexuality, as these are taboo subjects.
Leaving Iran and studying in the UK gave me a new perspective on the issues surrounding women’s rights. I began to use human hair as a material within my work, the hair representing the long term political struggle that exists in Iran.
I explored this conceptually by creating a series of brooches using my own and my Iranian friend’s hair. As a provocation, I cut my hair live on instagram.
Most of the people who know me think of me as a rebel, because I’m usually doing something which is uncommon in Iranian culture. Also, during my stay in the UK, I become involved with deaf culture. My deaf friends have assigned me a signed name, the sign is curly hair.
This interests me that in deaf culture, everyone has their own specific sign to represent their name, instead of spelling out the whole alphabet to name that person. The community assign signed names to each other they evoke your outstanding sign depends on your character or your facial particular. So I will save my natural hair curly shape and add to coconut shell the way that I’m not fixing in the coconut shell and like to be free of coconut shell.
The Tale of Tresses:
Maral
Each brooch is unique, designed to match each person that has donated their hair. The hair decorates the brooch using patterns and symbols to represent the personality of the wearer, and the stories that they, as women, reflect upon.
The Tale of Tresses: Fatemeh
Fatemeh is the shyest person I have ever met. She has no confidence in herself and suffered from anthropophobia. I camouflaged the coconut shell with her hair, to hide the base material representing Fatemeh who makes an emotional wall around herself from people, so they cannot get close.
The Tale of Tresses:
Yasamin
Yasmin- She attempted suicide many times, but now she is trying to fix herself and stand up strongly; no one can imagine her story, but to represent it, I broke the coconut shell and joined it back together with her hair. It doesn’t seem to be broken until you look closely.
The Tale of Tresses:
Dorsa
Dorsa- She is into warm tones of colour and also the mysterious and primitive shapes from ancient human drawings. I tried to weave her hair into the wood, in her favourite shape – the triangle. I did this in the traditional way that people made baskets. The triangle is upside down, representing the shape of the womb, to show her femininity.
All brooches are made of:
Human Hair
Coconut Shell
Copper
Sterling Steel
This project has been exhibited at:
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Talente, Munich 2018
Polyphonous: Counterpoint, Munich 2018
Radiantpavilion, Melbourne,Australia
Being part of the Slowboat workshop in Ikon Gallery 2018
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