Lately we’ve seen designers utilize human hair in an incredible range of applications – from sunglasses for the masses to dresses for Lady Gaga, product packaging, and woven mats that keep weeds from growing rampant on lawns. Artists have also taken note – Agustina Woodgate has transformed strands from countless heads into a hair bricks that she uses to construct gigantic castles.
Woodgate’s “I Wanted To Be A Princess” series used clumps of hair to create 3,000 bricks, which are stacked to form two Medieval castle sculptures. Debuting at Miami’s Spinello Gallery, one piece, called Tower, stands around four and a half feet tall. Made of tightly bound hair bricks, the piece looks like clay at first glance, with varying shades of brown and grays stacked perfectly together. Blonde hair donors provided the bricking for the windows, and the senior set contributed a band of white hair for the tower’s top.
Woodgate’s other castle structure is called Sandcastle. The hair used in this piece is less structured – a molded top caps a controlled pile of hair below. Its realism is uncanny – the hair strands tangle in a mess that resembles a decaying and crumbling castle, neglected over time.
Woodgate is known for utilizing offbeat materials in her works – she often recycles found and discarded objects, such as stuffed animals. She has also used hair to make slippers, brushes, structured balls and other sculptures.
+ Agustina Woodgate
