Virginia-based installation and textile artist Sonya Clark creates sculptures and tapestries using hundreds of thin-toothed black plastic combs found in barber shops. The black plastic combs evoke a legacy of hair culture, race politics, and antiquated notions of good hair and bad hair. Via her website, “Combs imply order in as much as they are tools that organize the fibers we grow. They suggest thorough investigation as in “to go through something with a fine-toothed comb.” When a comb has broken or missing teeth there is evidence of struggle. The missing teeth provide a new rhythm, the music of a new order.”
