JENNI CATLOW

FILAMENTS OF FASHION
by Jenni Catlow
4 - 27th September, 2004
Havant Arts Centre, East Street, Havant
Tel: 032 92 472700
 

The mechanics of the 20th Century facilitated global movement. This gave individuals the opportunity to see for themselves the cultural diversity which exists in our world. Many of them brought home some of their more colourful and creative findings only one aspect of which I am portraying in this exhibition.
 
Hair is said to be our crowning glory, and as such we could be left thinking, how we wear our hair is just down to fashion. In fact, how hair is worn often stems from tribal and religious beginnings.
 
Rastafarian "They shall not make baldness upon their heads." [Leviticus 21:5]
Early Rastafarian leaders made cutting hair a crime. Nowadays the consequences of visiting a barber are not quite so extreme, but followers of the Jamaican movement usually let their hair grow naturally. It is washed but not brushed. As it grows longer, it twines and mats itself into ropes, called "dreadlocks".
 
Sikhs believe that the function of the body should not be interfered with. They let their beards grow long. Hair on the head, also left long, is wrapped in a chiffon or muslin doth called a turban.
 
Amish "It is not accepted that women are shorn or shaven" [Corinthians 11.6]
Amish women never cut their hair. They brush it with a central parting and roll the hair back from the sides, fastening it in a bun at the back. The bun is usually covered with a lacy white cap; wearing it slightly lower than usual is thought to be a bit frisky.
 
Hare Krishna Founded in the USA in 1966, this religion is regarded by some as a modern day interpretation of the Hindu Bhagavad Gita scriptures. Devotees shave their heads as an act of renunciation of worldly life. Men leave a small top knot of hair, called a sikha "to pull back", so that when the time comes for Krishna to haul them up to heaven, he will have something to grab. There are no such rules for women.
 
Gikuyu The people of the Kenyon tribe hold nightly ceremonies to ward off spirits, who they blame for freak weather conditions and epidemics. The morning after such a ritual, mothers shave their childrens' hair in the shape of a cross; the cross is supposed to frighten the spirits off should they be tempted to come back for more. The shorn children are then painted from head to toe in red ochre.
 
Buddhist "All alone, come here, shave off your heads and beards." [Vinaya Pitaka]
A Buddhist monk receives his first shave at his initiation ceremony. By giving up hair, the novice shows a readiness to accept a simpler way of life. It's one of the 227 rules for monastic life in the Vinaya Pitaka scriptures. If violated, they believe, it could result in an unfavourable rebirth.
 
Mohican - A tribe of North American Indians. They lived along the banks of the Hudson River, in what is now New York State. Disease and warfare killed many of their people, survivors were driven west to Massachusetts and Wisconsin where they live today. Mohican men and women both wear a head band and two long braids. The men traditionally wore a distinctive hair cut when going to war- This hair style is known as Mohawk and has been adopted by a generation of young people who have adopted the Punk style.
 
My thanks are given to all those who took part in this project. It is these people who remind us we should not dismiss individualism, we should celebrate it. Also my sincere thanks to the staff at Havant Arts Active.
 
Acknowledgements to Colours VII11994.
 
Jenni Callow 2004.