Black Tresses (2016)

Bronze, human hair, 24 x 15 x 10 cm (without plinth)

‘Black Tresses (Duende),’ 2016, you see a bronze cast of a set of hands interlocking. The wrists are bound by human hair. The hands are at once seemingly at prayer or in the act of cleansing, but they are also the hands of the artist and perhaps an allusion to the hand of the creator. The work takes its cue and conceptual framework from a passage in book by Federico García Lorca entitled Gypsy Ballads (1928).
“If I should happen to die I order you
tie up my hands
with your black tresses.”
The lyrics are poignant and Çavuşoğlu’s response was to contextualize the idea and shift its domain from the performative to the visual.

Which sun gazed down on your last dream? Exhibition brochure text by Nicole Dee O’Rourke (2016)