This project explores my attempts to better understand and harness the vast potential of hair as a multifaceted motif in the context of women in the Sikh community. It expands on the research I have undertaken in the spheres of film, text, art and visual experimentation to strive towards a more holistic appreciation of underrepresented women in minority communities.
Explorations
I became accutely aware of the lack of representation from a Sikh-Female perspective regarding hair in visual media, and created Guth, a gouache painting celebrating Sikh Hair. Guth translates to ‘braid’ in Punjabi, and I hoped that my use of traditionally Sikh lexicon in naming the piece could be symbolic of my intention to decolonise visual lexicon. I hoped to allow the braid in the image to take on a life of its own and meander through the page. My intitial ideas were to create several iterations of this piece on a much larger scale.
Over time, however, this concept began to seem reductive. By simply celebrating the Sikh experience I felt that I was not doing it justice, and glossing over thornier and more difficult questions. Further, the intricate, detailed nature of the piece was pointed out as being far too curated for the subject at hand and also lacked freedom in mark making.
The innate need that I felt to ascribe material to this piece began first with my explorations in ink and wool. I have always been intrigued by the technique of needle felting, and the theme with which I was working seemed to perfectly ascribe itself to the medium. I therefore created two small felt dolls with long braids, primarily as an experiment with which to become comfortable in the medium. I also learnt different techniques by means of Youtube tutorials by practitioners like Sarafina Fiber Arts and Light Foot Felts.
Development
Using these techniques, I then created a needle felted braid, which I used as a paintbrush along with black ink to create loose, expressive drawings of a woman struggle with her own braid as it strangled her. While these drawings helped me appreciate the value of moving away from my comfort zone and into more expressive arenas, I continued to feel an innate lack of materiality. Further, I wanted to create a piece that invited interpretation from it’s viewers as the impact of perception was an innate part of what I wanted to say through this piece.
I therefore decided to embark upon a sculptural outcome, something which I have never done before in my practice. I believed that this would not only allow me the freedom of expression allowed through being new to a medium, but also allowed me to create more subtle and nuanced metaphors within the piece which could accurately represent Sikh culture.
After needle felting the three locks of hair over the course of several days, I then braided them into one consolidated and heavy braid. Upon measuring it, I realised that it serendipitously came to a total of 25 feet. This was significant as the number five is deeply symbolic to the Sikh community, specifically to the Punj Kakar or Five K’s or elements of which hair is one. I then decided to name the piece Pachi, meaning ‘twenty-five’.
On considering the presentation of the scuplture, I initially felt the need to represent the weight of the braid through the use of scales, but this felt far too literal. After considering a few other possibilties, I realised that the ‘hidden’ nature of the ball bearings was already significant. If I wanted the weight to be seen, I would have used a different material altogether. In many ways, their hidden nature represented how Sikh women rarely bear signs of their distress.
My final piece, Pachi, is one that has come to resemble many things both by virtue of what its represents as a finished pice, as well as the labour intensive nature of it’s creation. Through its painstaking construction, it was imbibed with the act of labour itself, one which is vital to the Sikh female experience. In letting go of my intital ideas of using complex metaphors and narratives, I was also able to work towards a more impactful, distilled visual piece that combined the most important aspects of my proposed narrative.
Outcome
Pachi, which translates to ‘twenty-five’ in Punjabi is an homage to Sikh women and the immense weight of their identity and experience which often goes unnoticed. It consists a needle felted rendition of a woman’s head, based loosely on my own grandmother, attached to which is a twenty-five foot long braid made with roving wool. Hidden in this braid are over seven hundred ball bearings, which have been stitched in, in order to impart a good deal of weight to the ‘hair’.
The piece attempts to signify the taking over of identity over individuality as well as the nuances and overlooked burden of being a Sikh woman. Through Pachi, I also hope to draw attention to more uncomfortable questions surrounding the ways in which we perceive and interact with minority feminist art.
Medium: Needle Felted Wool and Ball Bearings
