Rayna Li, An Intimate Union
2021
Digital images; inkjet print on Canson paper
40.5x29.5cm (suite of four)
My current project is a meditation on the shifting meanings of physical intimacy and emotional closeness under the shadow of the pandemic. I am interested in the cultural connotations of human hair and its ability to speak on behalf of absent human bodies. In many cultures, the interlacing of two individuals’ hair is a sacred ritual of spiritual unions, a rite of passage marking a significant event such as marriage or commemoration. My work references this layer of cultural meaning but drains the scene of intertwining human hair of its traditional associations of psychological comfort and soothing familiarity. Foregrounding locks of multiple individuals’ hair collected in a household vacuum’s dust chamber, I composed my microscopic images of such biological debris digitally to reveal ambiguous patterns verging on the uncanny. What dangers lie beneath this intricate web, one made of discarded things that were once part of us?