Mistake, Ruin, Fault, Error...

Each month, for a year, a barber shaved a word to do with making a mistake into the back of my head. Inbetween cuts, the clarity of the image dissipated as the hair grew, erasing the word in real time. The word was then replaced by a different one – a synonym – a new way to say the same thing, a new way to make the same mistake.

Headstone speaks into an urgent conversation about history repeating itself, and collective responsibility for the memory of things that have gone wrong, while playfully referencing the high-stakes precision of a barber’s craft. The siting of the work on my non-binary body, literally behind my back, additionally raises questions about the potential violence of the language of wrongness, and how it can stick and be carried.

Collaborating barbers:
Hank Bobbit, founder of BUTCH CUT, Berlin Cut #1: MISTAKE
Felix Lane, Open Barbers, London Cut #2: RUIN
Zara Toppin, London Cuts #3-10: FAULT, ERROR, WRONG, MESS, FAIL, MISHAP, SLIP, FLAW
Elton Clough, Sheffield Cuts #11 & 12: GLITCH, CUT

Headstone in fact ran slightly over one year as some cuts were less frequent than monthly.
The final cut, CUT, was an inversion of the method used in the rest of the piece, with the word being raised rather than sunken, as a move towards expurgating the content of the piece.

Headstone was commissioned by and presented as part of Cut Festival 2017.