Hairfall
2011
5min 47sec

The work captured the simple act of fallen hair accumulating on a sheet of paper. The seemingly incidental marks produced by the hair resembled abstract scribbles, appearing, shifting and disappearing without deliberate control.

It was made during my stay in a residential suite while studying at the Nottingham Trent University in 2011, where an everyday preoccupation with fallen hair and cleanliness led to the discovery of this drawing done by hair. With an overhead view, one day, I captured this act of naturally occurring scribbles, irregularly delineating atop the surface of paper. The documentation of these arrangements transformed this incidental act into a visual enquiry and study of the ‘line’. Unlike a drawn line, whose direction, length and position can be consciously controlled, the movement of a hair strand is governed by its own physical properties, where its fall determines where each stroke comes to rest. Hairfall consequently became an early point of departure for a larger inquiry into what a line is, where does a line begin, who or what determines its trajectory, and whether a linear drawing necessarily requires an intentional act of mark making. This encounter with an uncontrolled, organic line continued to greatly inform my subsequent explorations into linearity, movement, space and perception.