Women Using Their Heads

‘Women Using Their Heads’ was created in response to a photo of two women in 19th C St Lucia posed in the center of their village square with woven baskets of goods on their heads for the 2016 FotoFocus Biennial Exhibition held at the Lloyd Library in Cincinnati, Ohio. I knew that these women used their heads for much more than the transportation of produce.

2 centuries later, I interviewed thirteen contemporary women of Cincinnati about how they use their heads. In kinship with the women in the Lloyd photograph, their portraits and interview synopses are sandwiched between pages of papers handmade with plant fibers and dyed with walnut ink. Covers woven with a primitive form of shifu and linen thread embrace the uniqueness of each woman by binding every page individually with a tethered blanket stitch binding.

Lokta,handmade plant fiber papers, fine watercolor paper, black walnut ink, gold leaf, pen, linen thread. Photography by Tina Gutierrez, Cincinnati, Ohio.

16.5H” x 10.5W”

Sold – Xavier University