The Cornrow Maze
The Cornrow maze is a 35 ft x 25 ft wide 4 ft high sculpture of braided hair thatcreates a maze people can walkthrough. This piece will be created as an oversizedinflatable.
What are Cornrows? Thanks for asking. Cornrows or canerows are a style of hair braiding in which the hair is braided very close to the scalp, using an underhand, upward motion to make a continuous, raised row. Cornrows are often done in simple, straight lines, as the term implies, but they can also be styled in elaborate geometric or curvilinear designs.
Cornrowed hair accompanied the African enslaved across the Atlantic. Often times seeds and rice were braided into the hair to ensure survival.
To this day this particular hairstyle is often considered ghetto, and unprofessional unless it is on a white scalp. In that case, it is a trend mostly because it was validated by white culture. The issue with this is that by removing origin, the story is half told and authorship is erased. This erasure creates more invisibility to the contributions to culture by Black people.
Corn Rows, Cane Rows, Braids
Cornrows or canerows are a style of hair braiding in which the hair is braided very close to the scalp, using an underhand, upward motion to make a continuous, raised row. Cornrows are often done in simple, straight lines, as the term implies, but they can also be styled in elaborate geometric or curvilinear designs.
Help Make it Happen
This is going to be expensive, but we will lose way more if it never happens. This work is imperative. The history, stories and creativity of Black Culture must be told in dynamic ways, by Black artists, with multiplicity, dignity and inclusion. We are going to make it happen. We ask that you dig deep and cough up so coinage so that we can make this happen. Consider making a contribution. The money will go towards paying artists, fabrications, permits and space.
Thanks to our non profit partner Fokus.org all donations of $100 and up will be tax deductible..
Why This? Why Now?
Because it's a fun way to celebrate us and It should exist. We need more things to celebrate. We need more reasons to play.
As artists who love to play we are thrilled to bring this project to life.