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The Hair in the Cable 2025
A new display by Mimi Ọnụọha
Ọnụọha’s work examines the power dynamics of technology and its implications for different communities. Her practice reflects on the colonial legacies that frame technological industries and the global politics that shape our networked world.
In her ongoing series ‘The Hair In The Cable’, Ọnụọha reframes the cultural and philosophical roots of the internet. She draws on Igbo cosmology to reimagine the potential of connectivity, focusing on cables as the veins of digital information. In this belief system, Ala, goddess of earth and fertility, oversees everything on and buried within the ground, including internet cables, for Ọnụọha. Her work evokes a dreamlike vision as cables are intertwined with hair – braided, clothed and ultimately softened by gestures of care. Simultaneously surreal, familiar and disquieting, Ọnụọha presents a radical yet thoughtful view of the virtual world.
In her ongoing series ‘The Hair In The Cable’, Ọnụọha reframes the cultural and philosophical roots of the internet. She draws on Igbo cosmology to reimagine the potential of connectivity, focusing on cables as the veins of digital information. In this belief system, Ala, goddess of earth and fertility, oversees everything on and buried within the ground, including internet cables, for Ọnụọha. Her work evokes a dreamlike vision as cables are intertwined with hair – braided, clothed and ultimately softened by gestures of care. Simultaneously surreal, familiar and disquieting, Ọnụọha presents a radical yet thoughtful view of the virtual world.
This display presents the film 'These Networks In Our Skin', 2021, alongside the sculptural installation 'The Cloth In The Cable', 2022, both from the series ‘The Hair In The Cable’.
These Networks In Our Skin is part of the V&A’s permanent collection.
Purchase funded by the V&A Americas Foundation through the generosity of the Banwell Family Foundation.
Purchase funded by the V&A Americas Foundation through the generosity of the Banwell Family Foundation.
