If I take my hat off, who am I? by Hellen Colman

Hats have played significant roles in ritualistic practices throughout history. Hats are worn as part of rites to signify devotion or respect. They are present in activities that structure the lives of communities and reaffirm the identity of those who practice them.  Rituals surrounding hats reinforce community values and individual milestones.

This book questions signifiers that constitute the self exploring the multifaceted nature of identity.

I've been protected by a hat, I've been made special, I've been concealed,  hidden, I disappeared in a hat. The hat is a vessel to carry all my ever-changing range of alter-egos.

Photography, performance, and hats are used to capture different sides of a persona, at once posing the question of who we are while providing an uncertain answer involving simultaneous realities and more than one truth. Multiple are surrogates for an unattainable truth. I am the unreliable narrator of my own story seeking perhaps a definition of my self.

Each of the pages of this book is a unique round paper made with local plant fibers, as well as abaca and cotton. Each photograph floats on the idiosyncrasy of the chosen fiber - at times acting as a complement, at times as a counterpoint. Photographs expose moments of transformation with and without a hat. As life flows and events unravel and overlap, so the images swirl, twist and reposition creating new renderings and meanings allowed by the modified accordion binding structure with a flexible silk spine. The repetition of self portraits against the disparity of fibers reveals a narrative that is at once unified and fragmented.

The book is housed in an hexagonal box reminiscent of a hatbox covered by linen and mulberry paper naturally dyed with quebracho Colorado.