Pink Pearls
Synthetic hair, plastic beads, plastic tube
34 x 18 x 23"
1999

Statement:
In my recent work, although it continues to be abstract, I have created decorative and delicately feminine surfaces of woven wire or PVC, also metal leaves and flowers. Often the wire in my past work looked hair-like. My most recent work, included in this exhibition, goes one step further by actually using hair as the primary medium. Using hair as a medium implies using ones own body (or part of it) to make art. It refers also to the artifice of hair styles especially since the hair I've used is synthetic hair. In several of the pieces I've continued to create decorative and delicate surfaces by weaving the hair and combining it with other materials. The resulting pieces refer to objects other than hair. For instance, the humorous piece "Bee Hive" refers to both the hairdo of the same name and a hive or Cajon. The collages are more general. They are created intuitively and are a thinking process that sometimes results in sculptures and sometimes derives from them. The dome shaped outdoor piece titled "Cassopeia" has a surface of black PVC, metal trees around the bottom and metal stars near the top. It is like hair formed into a bun, the dome of a building and also a landscape.
Niki Ketchman