Rosa Francesca reflects on her Coventry Biennial Nest Residency

In 2021 I completed a Nest Residency on the subject of Black hair and the Natural Hair movement, particularly looking at how Black women’s relationship with their hair is often intruded upon, either physically by white people touching it without consent, or through unsolicited advice and comments  on its styling. My project was a cybernetic wig, using a variety of sensors to create an interactive wig that both entices and reprimands users to interact with the wig.

As a mixed-race woman coming from an African American family, I have had my own share of  negative and troubling experiences concerning how others approach my hair. I had my long frizzy hair cut off at the age of 18, not wanting to deal with the stigma and time-consuming maintenance anymore. One of the catalysts in my decision was that I had seen an episode of Oprah where Solange  Knowles was a guest talking about stigma of Black hair and the wig hair black market where young women often sell their hair. Solange had recently gotten a buzz cut which had apparently been a trending topic on twitter at the time. I was interested to see how extreme people’s reactions were to Solange’s hair, just because of something as simple as her getting it cut. My aunt also told me about a song and movement called ‘I Am Not My Hair’ and from then on that became my own  personal mantra, and I had my hair cut off so I could start fresh and build a better relationship with my hair and not feel metaphorically weighed down by it.

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Other women in my family who still have long, thick Afro hair still deal with other people reaching out to touch their hair in public without asking, often strangers, and I wanted to consider these experiences as inspiration for this project. I intended to use mobile technology as a method of interaction that doesn’t involve physical touch, so that viewers would be able to call or text the wig and see it respond. I also looked at proximity sensors, so that if anybody still tried to reach out and touch the wig a sound would play to deter them. In the end, I had issues with mobile technology and  just went with proximity sensors. I collected quotes from Black people in the Coventry community about their experiences with Black hair, and recorded some of these responses to play from a  speaker when people attempted to touch the cyber wig. For example, if you attempted to touch the hair, the wig would ‘speak’ and might say, “I was in a school assembly and somebody was playing  with my curls. I had to ask them to stop.” It was really interesting hearing other people’s hair stories, but also disheartening to hear that young girls still experience racism and ignorance based on their hair.  

The final project was shown at Coventry Biennial Festival in Winter 2021. A sign was attached to the  front of the wig display saying, ‘Don’t touch my hair – I dare you to try’. Someone reached out to me on social media saying that they reached out to touch it because the sign made them want to rebel,  so I was glad the sign had the intended effect! Overall it got a great response and I was especially grateful for the opportunity to collect quotes for the project at the Daimler Powerhouse Open Day. It was my first time doing a residency at the Nest (my previous Nest Residency was at Eaton Tower in  2019), and I appreciated having somewhere peaceful to go once a week and give my work my full attention.  

An important thing I learned during the course of this residency is that not all of my work needs to  be completed alone. I spend a great deal of my working day by myself, and at the time of the residency I was dealing with some not yet diagnosed mobility issues that I was attempting to power through. It was only towards the end of the project that I allowed myself to reach out to others at Talking Birds, as well as my own friends and family, to ask for a little support in finishing up the project. There were many points at which I got bogged down thinking that the project was a  disaster, only to then show it to another person and immediately get great feedback. I love the Nest,  as there’s great value in having a space just for you, while still knowing that there are actual human beings a stone’s throw away if you need a second opinion or a bit of moral support. The juxtaposition of independence and a welcoming community is what makes the Nest so special, and I’m glad I saw the project through and was able to showcase it at the Biennial.