Delaney- Materialistic

Reflection After Critique - 3/26/26

    One thing that I really wish was different about this installation (and a sentiment that was definitely echoed in critique so now I know I'm not crazy) was the lack of hair outside of the cocoon. As is reflected in my concept art prior to beginning this piece, I initially wanted to have hair hanging from the ceiling, descending down to the floor, and sticking to the walls. Unfortunately, I severely underestimated just how much hair it would take just to cover the cocoon. I kept having to order more, and I didn't have any left by the time I covered the cord attaching the piece to the ceiling with hair. In the future, this is definitely something I would want to built upon, adding way more hair all over to make it more overwhelming.

    It was also recommended that I add more bathroom/toiletry items to the room, and maybe more of a shower curtain to the door. I do really like the idea of a frosted shower curtain over the door- I tried to do this, but the shower curtain I bought was pretty small so it doesn't quite look like I intended. I think a longer one, attached to some sort of bar like shower curtains are, would be good. I'm not sure how I feel about adding more bathroom supplies though. I did consider this while I was installing, but ultimately didn't because I was worried about doing too much and taking away from the piece. I want every object I use to have a reason and a meaning, and I'm just not sure if I can justify other bathroom items as anything other than setting a location.

    I would like to add smell to this installation in the future. I just don't fully know what smell would be appropriate or how to go about adding one. I considered hairspray, but I kind of hate that smell. I also worry about further deterring anyone from viewing my work based on that.

    Another thing I would do different next time is adding more tile. I actually originally planned on covering the entire floor in tile, but that's more expensive than I thought. I ended up finding some stick-on wallpaper that looked kind of like tile, so I bought that. Unfortunately, I got my math extremely wrong and didn't have anywhere near enough to cover the floor. That's when I pivoted and cut up the tiles to only place directly under the cocoon, hoping it would look intentional. I think this worked out pretty good, but I'd definitely want to cover the floor next time.

    I also wish I would've made the body of the woman longer. I originally also wanted to have a knee sticking out of the cocoon, but I was running out of time and unsure how I wanted to construct this, so I didn't. I would love to revise it and add that knee in the future.

    Overall, I'm pretty content with what I made. I know I could do better, but I think I still made something pretty cool, and I'm happy with that.

3/23/26

I added finishing touches as far as I could to my installation. I also wrote my artist statement and came up with names for the piece, as well as looking at audios to add sound to the room.

That is about all I did before spring break!

3/10/26

This week, I finished making my installation and installed it in the "That" gallery. I wish I would have taken more pictures of my project, but I got a little too into it and forgot unfortunately.

    The bulk of the work I did was sewing in strips of hair into my piece as I thought. I also had to order some additional hair because covering my structure took a lot more than I expected. My helper had the idea of needle-felting into the foam-base of my piece to cover more ground, which helped a lot. I do not think I would've ever been able to cover the entire surface in hair if not for this.

    The part of the process I enjoyed most about this project was painting the face and the hand. I always enjoy painting things the most in any project, so doing this was like a little treat. I really didn't enjoy sewing strips of hair to the hammock though- that part of the process almost made me lose my mind. If I could do this piece again, I may consider a different method for attaching hair.

3/2/26

    So far, I am comfortable with the amount of progress I'm making. I've been able to follow my planner for the week and meet the milestones I made for myself on-time, which I'm happy for!

    Over the weekend, I began sculpting the face for my piece. I received suggestions in class not to try and sculpt a face from scratch considering the time constraint, which I agree with. However, I didn't really want to use the face-casting idea for this piece, because I don't really want the girl depicted to look like me- or anyone else, really. As an alternative, I decided to sculpt a face over top of a mask I found, which saved me a lot of time while still allowing me to make a face.

     I am not finished painting her yet- I got kind of tired and plan to finish her tomorrow. However, I am going for a painterly-vibe for her face and hand (I found a plastic hand which I am very excited about!). I'm not entirely happy with how her face came out- I think I may be happier when I finish painting and refining her. I also keep reminding myself that portions of her face will have strands of hair over them, so I have a bit of wiggle-room here.

After that, I decided to begin experimenting with making hair out of yarn. I planned on doing this from the beginning- but I would like to note that I found a really long wig, which means I'll probably be able to cover more ground than I thought with wig hair and the hair extensions that were ordered for me. I do still think I will need to use yarn-hair to cover more ground though. My plan is to use yarn on the bottom-layer of the cocoon and use my nice-hair overtop.

Anyway, I think I've figured out how to make yarn look somewhat hair-like! Here is my first weft of hair with yarn:

    I've decided this will be the most time-consuming part of my project, so I plan on focusing most of the week on finishing the body-parts for my lady and making hair! I'm attaching a piece of yarn to the top of each weft I make so that I can tie it to the hammock that was ordered for me- it's a rope-hammock, so I think this will make the assembly process much easier. 

I'm definitely feeling a bit more confident about my installation now that I have my process and materials figured out.

I also bought a shower drain cover this weekend for my piece!

Answering questions from Last Week:

I am focusing more on an idea of Isolation/Containment. I've seen hair used as a metaphor for memory before, which is an idea I think is interesting. There's sort of a belief some people hold of hair holding memories, which I like. More than that, I think hair is difficult to get rid of- we find stray hairs all around, maybe in our beds, in the cracks of a couch cushion, the holes of a shower drain, etc. Hair is perpetually present in our lives. If we go by the logic of hair holding memories, its like no matter what, these things will linger somehow. That can feel suffocating and confining, in a way. This piece is supposed to approach the idea that life experiences mold us, and that everyone we meet will affect our lives in some way, and view this idea through a lens of contamination and something binding.

The drain in this piece is meant to remind us of a shower- a place where we clean ourselves. However, for me, when I see a hairy shower drain, I feel reminded that being a person is dirty- having a body and existing is inherently gross, which is usually easy to overlook because we inhabit our bodies- but there's so much about the human body that is gross, and then I feel like not even a shower is truly a clean place. This thought process, to me, makes the hairy drain a good indicator that the feeling of being contaminated is not a feeling that you can just wash away- it's not a physical dirty-ness, after all.

To be clear, though the visual of this piece and the concept was inspired by an experience I had, I don't necessarily intend for the piece to be about me specifically, or even about that specific thing that happened. I draw inspiration from things that have happened to me because I don't feel like I can do a good job conveying a feeling I haven't felt or a type of experience I haven't had. But in the end, I've decided that the meaning of this piece is a bit more vague. It depicts a girl, plagued by memories held in the hair she's cocooned in.

For the installation, I want the cocoon to be in the corner of the room, with the shower drain somewhat in front of it. I want her to hang up sort-of high, but not so high to where she feels inaccessible to the viewer. I want some hair to hang down from the ceiling too. I also  want to make the lights red to create a feeling of unease and discomfort in the space. I am also somewhat interested in including sound in my installation if possible- I think a subtle dripping-faucet sound might be neat and contextualize the shower-drain a bit more. Dripping faucets to me, indicate that a sink/shower may not be well-maintained or looked-after, which makes me feel a bit uneasy about using them.

2/24/26

    After bouncing my ideas off of other people, I've decided to go with my second idea with the hair-cocoon, as I think it is more feasible and maybe a bit more visually interesting. I will be refining it a bit and drawing up a few more concept sketches so I'm sure what my plan is before I get too far into my process.

 

Here's my materials list:

• Black Yarn
• Hair Extension
  
• cardboard
• air-dry clay (I have)
• Paracord or something for hanging?
• white fabric for ceiling and floor.
• something I can put over the lights to make them red? I'm not sure what I can use for this.

2/19/2026

    I'm still a little bit undecided on what idea I want to go with, but I have two solid concepts that I'm happy with and excited about.

Idea Development

Idea #1

    My first idea was for my installation to be depicting a wake. I think wakes are an interesting thing- I think sitting there with the body of a loved one, really spending time with their body, is kind of a unique experience. I can't speak for everyone but I think spending time with the body really helps the grieving process, as you are confronted with the reality of the situation and must let the fact that they're gone sink in. For me, when I haven't gotten to spend time with the  body, I find myself struggling to come to terms with what happened in my mind. Like, logically, I know that person is dead- but because I haven't seen it, I feel like I almost forget that they're really gone, or have trouble wrapping my head around it. Whereas, when I have spent time with the body, I feel like my grieving process is more grounded in reality. It still sucks and is sad, but for me, it is a bit of an easier mourning process.

    Anyway, My idea for this piece is to have a sculpted-body laying in a bed. Their face is veiled, but you can still see the contours of the human face- vague nose shape, etc. My intention with this is to strip the individual of any set-identity so it can be interpreted as anyone. Then, by the bedside, I would have a small table and chair where a viewer can sit and spend time with the work. On the table, there would be an open notebook where the viewer is invited to, if they choose, write about their experiences with grieving or about a loved one. There would also be a vase with flowers where the viewer is allowed to take one and lay it over the body to sort of pay respects.

Idea #2

    My second idea is based  on a feeling from an experience I had a few years back. I'll be vague, but for context, I used to date somebody who was not very mentally stable and I had a lot of scary experiences with him as a result. For some reason, even though this was by no means the worst thing to happen, what stuck with me was this time when he was on top of me- I'm not very strong, but my fight or flight kicked in, and I bit his hair, pulling it out. This really haunted me- I felt guilty even though really, I know what happened wasn't without reason. But I found myself constantly feeling like I had hair in my mouth, even when I didn't. I don't think I'll ever forget the feeling of hair between my teeth. I was left with this lingering feeling of being gross or dirty.

    So, that's what this piece would be about. I depicted a girl wrapped in a cocoon of hair, with a shower drain beneath her that has hair coming out of it. I obviously can't find that much hair, so my idea  was to sculpt and paint some of it, but use brushed-out yarn for a large portion to get the effect of hair. Then, for smaller strands I would use some wig hair- I actually have a pretty long black wig that I'm not really attached to, so maybe I'd use that. I would like to sculpt some of the girl's body parts- mainly her face, an arm, and a bit of a knee, but I will be obscuring a lot of this with hair, so I'll probably only sculpt some parts to make it lightweight. I thought I would mostly use some foam, paper mache, and maybe some air-dry clay for certain features, all sealed with a few layers of mod podge to keep it together. To suspend this from the ceiling, I figured it would probably be most structurally sound to use some sort of cord that I can easily hide with the "hair". I'll try to make this pretty light-weight, but I will still have to be careful that it's structurally sound so it doesn't fall.

    I'm not set on either of these ideas yet. I really like both, so any input on which one I should go with and develop further would be appreciated!

Conceptual Strengths

1. The sensory trigger is powerful.
The “hair between the teeth” memory is visceral. It’s not just narrative — it’s embodied memory. That’s strong installation territory.

2. Hair as material = metaphorically loaded.
Hair carries associations of:

• Intimacy

• Bodily residue

• Disgust

• Gender

• Power and entanglement

You are working with a material that already holds meaning, which is good.

3. The cocoon form is promising.
A cocoon suggests:

• Protection

• Containment

• Metamorphosis

• Isolation

But right now you needs to clarify which of these ideas you activating.

Where You Need to Push Further (Conceptually)

Right now, the piece risks being illustrative instead of immersive.

• Is the girl trapped? Or self-wrapped?

• Is this about guilt? Or violation? Or contamination?

• Is the drain symbolic of release, or accumulation?

• Is the cocoon protective or suffocating?

If you dont define this, the work will read as “trauma sculpture” rather than a focused installation.

You have the core — now you need precision.

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Installation Questions to Push You

Since this is installation, not just sculpture:

1. Scale

   • Is this life-size? Smaller? Suspended at eye level?

   • Does the viewer walk under it? Around it?

2. Viewer Relationship

   • Can the viewer see the face clearly? Is it female? Is it you?

   • Is the hair dense enough to obscure and frustrate visibility?

3. Space Activation

   • Is the drain on the floor?

   • Is the hair touching the floor?

   • Is this in a corner? Center of the room? Overhead?

Right now, you are describing an object. You need to describe an environment.

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Material & Structural Feedback 

 Material choices could cheapen the emotional weight if not handled intentionally.

1. Foam + Paper Mâché + Air-Dry Clay

This combo is workable, but:

• Air-dry clay cracks easily.

• Mod Podge is not structural.

• Paper mâché can sag over time.

If you are suspending this:

• You need an internal armature. ( I bought you a hammock so that should help)

• Lightweight = good, but structural integrity matters.

Suggestions

• Chicken wire to help form body shape

• Plaster cloth over structure 

• Clear fishing line or aircraft cable instead of visible cord

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2. Yarn as Hair

Brushed-out yarn can work — but it can also look crafty.

I encourage you to test:

• Different yarn types (acrylic vs wool)

• Density layering

• Matte vs synthetic sheen

• Incorporating real wig hair for realism

The difference between “haunting” and “Halloween” will be density and restraint.

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3. The Drain Element

The drain is strong symbolically — but it could easily become too literal.

Questions to refine:

• Is hair emerging from the drain?

• Is it being pulled into the drain?

• Is it a cycle?

You could consider:

• Real metal drain fixture

• Hair trailing down into the drain

• Or drain mounted vertically instead of on floor to disrupt expectations

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Emotional Arc

Right now, the work is stuck in “gross / dirty.”

 Consider:

Is there transformation?

If it’s a cocoon, what happens next?

Even if the answer is “nothing,” you need to consciously choose that.

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Safety + Sensitivity Consideration

Given the content (physical threat, bodily memory), I suggest:

• Do you want a short wall text?

• Do you want to contextualize it?

• Are you emotionally ready to display this publicly?

Not to censor — but to protect you.