For the past six years, Baltimore-area artist Sonya Clark has literally poured her mind and body into the works that make up her newest exhibit.

Clark’s Loose Strands, Tight Knots exhibit, on display at The Walters Art Museum, uses a number of different mediums including Clark’s own hair. “Nobody is neutral about hair, it’s a very provocative thing to work with,” Clark said.

The exhibit features a dozen of her latest creations combined with several other pieces owned by the museum. The works are tied together by the theme of memory.

“Hair in itself is a memory,” Clark said. “Our DNA is in our hair, and it’s kind of neat in that way because it is a part of that survives long after we are gone.”

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The memories range from the very personal “Pearl of Mother” — made of a combination of Clark’s hair and her mother’s — to a variety of Victorian-style jewelry that was originally created to memorialize the dead. The exhibit also features video, photography and beadwork from Clark’s collection.

“I wanted to be able to represent work of hers from different medias,” said exhibit designer Tosha Grantham about the variety of offerings.

Grantham is finishing a two-year fellowship with The Walters and has worked with Clark in the past.

“We had an ongoing dialogue about her work and an idea that made sense for their gallery,” she said. “I like the feeling with her, and I do feel a kind of kinship with her.”

Clark said she discovered subconscious themes in her art because of the way they are grouped with each other and with the pieces from other artists.

“What I tried to do was take what I knew about Sonya’s work and what the gallery had and applying it across cultures and across times in a way that normally wouldn’t be seen,” Grantham said.

The exhibit has inspired her with new ideas based on that kinship.

IF YOU GO

Sonya Clark: Loose Strands, Tight Knots

  • When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday; through Sept. 21
  • Where: The Walters Art Museum
  • 600 N. Charles St., Baltimore
  • Info: 410-547-9000

daniel.murphy@baltimoreexaminer.com