Elephant Memory #1
Elephant Memory #1 consists of a long braid of synthetic hair running along a galvanised steel chain suspended from a wall by a hook. The braid recalls Black hairstyles and Diamond Stingily’s mother’s hairdressing salon, where she spent her childhood, highlighting the work of passing on knowledge in a matrilineal lineage. The title of the work also refers to the social organisation of elephants: in the herd, codependence is established within a specific matriarchal system, which echoes the artist’s relationship with the transmission of female heritage. This work, with its autobiographical echoes, evokes entangled connections, shackles, and the question of passing on knowledge. Elephant Memory #1 is part of a group of dozens of works that take up the same theme in different forms of chains and braids.
Text written by Clara Delettre as part of the partnership between the École du Louvre and Lafayette Anticipations – Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin.
Exhibitions
Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz (Liechtenstein)
from 20 May to 04 Sep 2022
Galerei Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin (Allemagne)
from 17 Sep to 09 Nov 2019