The Filaments of a Memory is Camila Barvo’s first solo show exhibition, hosted by Sarabande Foundation at the Tottenham Gallery Space.
Mystical and deeply connected to nature and the internal essence, hair serves as a force of filaments that whisper, grow, and intertwine with human existence. Camila Barvo’s sculptures invite to perceive hair as something far more than just a cosmetic scenery encouraging reflection on the visceral nature of hair experiences.
Rooted in the power of fibre entanglement and referencing Latin American writer María Luisa Bombal’s short story ‘Trenzas’, this exhibition unfolds a braided and knotted installation that embodies the profound and visceral experience of one’s own hair. This space serves as an intimate storehouse or morelike ‘ storeforest’ where hair has a voice, embraces the mysteries of time and treasures our emotional memory.
“Porque la cabellera de la mujer arranca desde lo más profundo y misterioso; desde allí donde nace y tiembla la primera burbuja; que es desde allí que se desenvuelve, lucha y crece entre muchas y enmarañadas fuerzas, hasta la superficie de lo vegetal, del aire y hasta las frentes privilegiadas que ella eligiera.”
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"Because a woman's hair originates from the deepest and most mysterious place— from where the first bubble is born and trembles. It is from there that it unfurls, frays, and grows amid many tangled forces, until it reaches the surface of the vegetal, the air, and the privileged foreheads it chooses."
- Trenzas, Maria Luisa Bombal. Chile (1910 - 1980)
By translating gestures done when manipulating hair into textile fibres, each soft sculpture is curled into a gravity-defying undulating structure. Celebrating the inherent texture of untamed curly hair, the installation’s materiality expresses the mentioned gestures by Bombál, ‘unfurl’, ‘fray’ and ‘grow’ as silent yet powerful forces.
In this place, the visitor is called to confront their own relationship with hair-its role in shaping identity and self-perception. Suggesting individuality within the collective, it invites reflection on how each singular strand of hair hold’s the story of an individual-from their DNA to the way their emotions are intertwined.
