Fritzia Irízar

NATURALEZA DE IMITACIÓN | 2012

This piece is articulated in two processes. The first of these is the collection of hair from people living in the Tarahumaran communities in Chihuahua, Mexico, whom are currently living in extreme poverty and have been affected by the largest and most devastating famine in years. These samples of hair, which contain biological information about their current health situation, were then used to create an artificial diamond, following a procedure to extract carbon molecules from human hair.
This diamond thus represent, the documentation of the collection of hair from donors as well as the results of the fabrication process, the rock itself.

This project aims to recreate the existence of a natural element by means of an artificial process. Seeking through the elimination of trade and commercial value, to emphasize the importance of its symbolic qualities. This way, the final result urges the viewer into reflection in the comparison of its relevance, at an existential level, highlighting the differences between two social groups that are physically close yet far from each other.

This piece constitutes an homage-memorial, disguised as a common object of desire that, through history, has represented the cause of the most brutal expressions of dehumanization; with an ultimate end based in vain concepts of beauty and power.
To create an object that represents one of the most refined definitions of beauty, just as it is an integral representation of economic power, using parts donated by people living in precarious conditions, shaken by marginalization and social inequality, but who ironically make up a group that protects one of the country's most important cultural legacies.