Material Culture
© Thandiwe MuriuEvery morning women have rituals they follow, a spritz of perfume and a swipe of red lipstick that they follow from beauty culture refined by generations before them, who have done the same. In the same way, the ritual of tying a headwrap is a beautifying process that Africa women have been perfecting and passing on from mother to daughter.
As a child, I would watch my own mother with fascination as she draped printed fabric around her hair in an elaborate design in preparation for special events; transforming a humble piece of fabric into a magnificent piece of art.
Material Culture is an exploration of the practice of covering our heads to beautify ourselves. No two headwraps are ever the same - each pair of hands always add their own flare and twist to the long strip of fabric used.
By tying a headwrap, every African woman adorns herself with the equivalent of a regal coronet that draws the viewer's gaze upwards in the same way a crown does for a queen.
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InstituteTM (collectively Institute Pictures, Institute Studios, & Institute Artist) is redefining how stories are produced and told in the 21st Century. Founded by Producer Frank Evers and Director/Visual Artist Lauren Greenfield, we are a multiplatform production company representing auteur-driven storytellers across commercials, photography, fine art, film, and technology — and producing original work across every screen that those stories live on. Our multiplatform expertise and established global relationships in entertainment, commercial, fine art, and journalism create unmatched reach and cross-pollination of creative work. A film commission informs a photography campaign; a fine art practice shapes a commercial; an editorial relationship opens a documentary. Few companies operate fluently across all of these worlds. Institute was built this way from the ground up.
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