Dezeta Fantie
Braiding The Black Atlantic
If Black hair could speak, what would it say?
Would it braid itself together?
Would it speak like a coil or a curl?
Evolving out of her research into African American quiltmakers, Black hair history and bio- mythical fiction, Dezeta Fantie’s work weaves her experiences with hair loss into the conversation surrounding the misrepresentation of Black bodies and hair. Acknowledging the history of Black hair being used to carry items such as gold, seeds and rice across the atlantic during the slave trade, Fantie questions the agency of materials and how hair, water and fabric can all carry things such as trauma, memory and stories. Fantie’s process begins with collecting, natural dyeing and hand sewing, becoming her own factory to build a textile landscape where Black hair roams, unwinding and uncurling. The hair transforms through the colour purple, representative of freedom and power, from a stationary vessel into being.
dezetafantie@gmail.com
