Unwearable Carrara Flats Ouch!
Medium: Carrara marble
Dimensions: Each shoe measures 340 mm x 80 mm x 50 mm.
Year: 2012
recently exhibited at Unwearable Art, Lightspace Gallery, Academy of Fine Arts,Wellington.
Carrara Flats Ouch! are based on a pair of shoes I purchased in Greece. At the time the square toe was fashionable but restrictive and uncomfortable to wear. Each time I wore them I was reminded how hard they felt and how difficult they were to walk in. The idea to produce these shoes in stone was not such a great leap of the imagination. The front end of the shoes have not been excavated leaving a body of material in the toe that would make the penetration of a foot impossible and unwearable.
Fashioned in Carrara marble, the same stone Michelangelo carved, recalling sculptures from the Renaissance but the shoes are modern everyday objects.
On the inside of the shoe a logo Ouch! has been sandblasted indicating a likely response to the result of wearing the shoe. The Ouch!logo is repeated on the other shoes in this mini series; 6 Inch Black Ouch! and Topless Ouch! These sculptures explore the idea that often women wear uncomfortable items of clothing and shoes to the socially acceptable and sexually attractive.