Impossible shoe 3, 1.9-7.9.21
I decided I wanted to try featuring a shoe in this assemblage, as I had in Part of me 1, 2020. I tried a number of different shoes but decided to use the same one that I used last time, one of my flatform Teva sandals. They are my favourite shoes and I wear them all the time. In fact, I love them so much that last September, when they were part of the Degree Show, I bought myself a new pair so that I wouldn't be without them.
I had hoped that I might be able to rescue my shoe from the concrete after the exhibition, but Gareth reminded me that it was my MA so I should probably sacrifice it! This meant that I could put screws into the sole so that the shoe would be much more firmly embedded. RIP shoe. It was, interestingly, harder to embed the shoe than to make a footprint in the concrete. maybe it was about the mix of the concrete?
I was slightly disappointed with the final object as I think the shoe looks like an ordinary sandal, obviously, resting on the surface of the concrete, not as if it's a flatform sandal half buried.
I found the enshrouded sculpture intriguing. The cling film slows down the drying process so that the concrete dries more evenly.
Impossible shoe 3, trial installation 1, 6.9 21:
The sculpture was constructed so that the metal pole would fit into the back of the concrete, like this:
I wasn't so keen on this way of displaying it, and neither were the group during the crit. I had thought I wouldn't use it, but overnight I wondered about drilling a hole through the sandal as well:
I think this works much better, as now the rod can pass through the shoe, rather like a leg. The following day I also added the other sandal, putting it on one of my concrete cast feet. I am very happy with this arrangement. It makes me smile, but it also has notions of absence and presence, and the uncanny. I've written more about shoes here.