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Henny (2018)
Graphite on paper
30 x 22 in.

Hair became a prominent motif in Cutler’s oeuvre after she visited a Buddhist temple built in 1602 in Kyoto, Japan, where ropes made from the hair of female devotees were used to move materials when the structure was rebuilt following a late-nineteenth-century fire. For Cutler, hair is both a burden and boon. While she uses it to explore topics including vanity, antiquated gender norms, and the inevitable passage of time, the artist also deploys hair to suggest self-sufficiency and the power of collective will and action. Just as single strands of hair become vastly stronger when braided together, so too do the women in Cutler’s fantastical parallel universe
—Karin Campbell