Art

[gothick]

Art Shoes
Originally uploaded by gothick_matt.

These shoes are a work of art. No, literally. I went down to the opening night of the British Art Show 2006 this evening. The first piece I came across was in the Arnolfini. It looked a bit like a shoe shop, with many shoes on shelves.

I admired it for a while, and then an attendant asked, "would you like to swap your shoes?"

Turned out that it was an interactive piece, and you could leave your own shoes behind for a while, and take a pair of shoes from the installation to wear.

"Please feel free to walk around the gallery, or even visit different venues around town"

Odd, but quite nice. So I left my Converse All Stars behind, and wandered around in J Random Shoes In My Size for a while, including wandering out to the harbourside and having a pint of Magners cider, and taking a photo of the small chunk of art that I was wearing.

I enjoyed this quite a lot, in fact. A bit of a cliche, I suppose, walking around in someone else's shoes, but hey...

So, for an hour or so, I wore these, and left my own shoes as part of an installation in this year's British Art Show. Cool.

This was Adam Chodzko's installation "M-path", by the way....

Comments

[kaveypie.livejournal.com]

I'm usually a trusting soul BUT what if someone else had nicked your shoes (hope you weren't wearing those new boots of yours), decided they liked them better than their own and not come back?

Not to mention that the thought of someone else's feet in my shoes makes me feel somewhat nauseous - then again I do have a minor foot phobia!

[gothick-matt.livejournal.com]

All the shoes which stock the "shop" at the beginning are numbered and stamped with the name of the artwork, and you only get to borrow those. When it's a pair of swapped shoes on display, they put them a different way around on the shelf, too, so I guess that acts as a "don't lend these ones out" sign to the attendant.

I probably shouldn't mention to a foot phobia sufferer that all the display shoes started off secondhand...

I did worry a little about not getting my shoes back, but hey, if you want to be part of a work of art, I guess you have to take some risks ;-)

[paaaaants.livejournal.com]

That is entirely neato! I love it!!

SBj

Art

[andre-powell.livejournal.com]

The question is WHY OH WHY DID YOU Choose those ? They really do not match your eyes.
I should go off to this kind of thing as well. Knowing sods law I'd find somthing like leave an impression of your ear in this mud we have provided.

Hugs

Andre'

Re: Art

[gothick-matt.livejournal.com]

Well, there was a limited choice in my size, and it was either those or some pretty high high-heels. And, erm, I'd actually already worn high heels once this month, so I didn't think I really needed that experience again...