Does DOES Substantial Self
2017
DOES Pharma®
DOES Beauty®
DOES presents Substantial Self, a project that pays homage to human hair as matter, history and poetry, as part of ourselves. A collection of different pieces made out of a peculiar resource such as waxed hair were presented and exhibited during “The Materials Farm” symposium at DHUB Barcelona, June 2017.
Substantial Self is born out of a dialogue about human materiality. What we are composed of, each and every element, has its function. And each material its properties and characteristics. Water gives us the possibility of life, our bones support our body and our skin tissue waterproofs us by encapsulating all of these forms and allowing them to breathe. Likewise, it is our hair which protects, harbours and covers our skin.
As rational animals, we commit the irrationality of going beyond grooming by subtracting essential functional properties of our body to fit into our notion of the aesthetic, the clean, or what society says we should be. We pull out the hair from our bodies to turn our skin into a smooth and even canvas and then we cover it, as a consequence, with clothes, creams or makeup. We design our bodies by trying to escape what is given. This spirit of discontent and judgment leads us to separate ourselves from our natural self.
Jewellery carrying your DNA, plates of armour to protect the skin, vases that personally identify you. A bizarre material reconverted into a valuable thing for you. A souvenir to your intimacy, to your materiality. An extraction of your body, converted into material, becoming an object.
Credits
"Substantial Self" was a project developed for "Materials Farm" exhibition, at DHUB Barcelona During Barcelona Design Week 2017. "Substantial Self" is part of MATERFAD Showroom and Collection.
Photography by Pablo De Pastors
Museum photography by FAD Barcelona