These works treat the comb as both a functional and ritual object. Across many African cultures, hair is closely connected to identity, spirituality and intergenerational care. Hairdressing becomes a site of intimacy, storytelling and embodied knowledge, with the comb mediating touch and memory.

Here, the comb is not used but offered. Made from air drying clay and embedded with dried sorrel leaves, the objects sit between archive and ritual. As the leaves decay, they leave impressions in the clay, creating a material record of contact, transformation and disappearance.

The comb relates to the idea of the body as archive. Just as the body holds memory through movement, the comb holds memory through material trace. It also evokes preparation, sitting before the body enters ceremony or dance, within a wider ecosystem of care, grooming and ancestral connection.

In this sense, the comb becomes a quiet counterpart to twerking. Where twerking is movement, excess and visibility, the comb is preparation, touch and stillness. Both are forms of bodily knowledge.

Ritual Archive Studies