About Phylicia

Baltimore City, Baltimore City - Station North A&E District, Baltimore County

Phylicia Ghee is an interdisciplinary visual artist, photographer and curator. Ghee’s artwork documents transition, explores healing, memory, ritual, ceremony & personal rites-of-passage. She is interested in the intersection between the physical and the spiritual. Taught by her Grandfather at an early age; Ghee works in photography, performance, video, fibers, mixed media, installation & painting. She earned… more

"Grounding Ceremony" (2011)

Grounding Ceremony documents the ceremonial release of my hair, which began with a sacred burial ritual. I begin by digging a hole into the Earth.  I ultimately enter that hole, where I cut each of my locs one by one. Each loc represents another level of release and cleansing, until all of my locs have been cut, marking the full release of the past. I was not the same person upon rising from the Earth that day, with my cut locs surrounding me, appearing like wings. 

 

 

Hair holds experiences, and a tree grows best when it has strong, solid roots. This ceremony released me from what I had been holding tightly to; and by rooting myself within the Earth for that process, I was able to transmute that energy so that I could emerge renewed. This video documents a very vulnerable moment of release and spiritual grounding. With the release of my hair, so many other things were also shed from my life. This work documents a true transition and rite-of-passage for me. 

 

 

 

 

 

  • "Grounding Ceremony" (2min EXCERPT)
    "Grounding Ceremony" (Excerpt) 2min excerpt from the full 17:21min video. June 2011
  • Grounding Ceremony - The Scissors
    Grounding Ceremony - The Scissors
    11"X14" C-Print, 2011, Photography Documenting Rite of Passage Ceremony
  • Grounding Ceremony - Ritual Tools
    Grounding Ceremony - Ritual Tools
    11"X14" C-Print, 2011, Photography Documenting Rite of Passage Ceremony
  • Grounding Ceremony Video Still
    Grounding Ceremony Video Still
    Video Still, 17:21min video documenting rite of passage ceremony, 2011
  • Grounding Ceremony in exhibition at The Galleries (CCBC)
    "Grounding Ceremony" in exhibition at The Galleries (CCBC)
    Grounding Ceremony, displayed in an exhibition entitled Mythic, curated by EmilyAnn Craighead; October 21st - December 7th, 2019
  • Grounding Ceremony
    Grounding Ceremony
    11"X14" C-Print, 2011, Photography Documenting Rite of Passage Ceremony
  • Grounding Ceremony Video Still - Cut Hair on Earth
    Grounding Ceremony Video Still - Cut Hair on Earth
    Video Still, 2011, 17:21min Video Documenting Rite of Passage Ceremony
  • Grounding Ceremony - Before & After
    Grounding Ceremony - Before & After
    8"X16" C-Print, 2011, Photography Documenting Rite of Passage Ceremony
  • Grounding Ceremony -- Blackbird Exhibtion
    "Grounding Ceremony" -- Blackbird Exhibtion
    "Grounding Ceremony", displayed in an exhibition entitled "BLACKBIRD" Curated by Alexis Dixon, April 2018 -- Inspired by Nina Simone’s “Blackbird”, BLACKBIRD invited Black women artists to claim artistic space in the midst of navigating a world that marks the existence of Black women as invisible. The exhibition was a collective representation of the ways Black women seek their own versions of liberation through ancestral reverence, healing, and cultural and self-preservation, all the while weaving in notions of spirituality.