We unpicked our shoes in order to understand their function and physicality. Having chosen an incredibly old pair from home, as I pulled out the laces a sun bleached pattern was revealed, a memory of the laces form.
Undoing the shoes provided a new perspective as the object became removed from its function. The scientific, investigative nature of the deconstructing process and the antiquated look of the pieces of shoe made the objects feel more ‘artefacty’.
The physicality of undoing the shoe meant that our understanding of the object was based on touch as well as the visual and preconceived. Secret layers to an everyday utilitarian object that is often overlooked were revealed.
We drew with our non dominant hand, from a description and from touch. Knowing that it was a shoe and understanding the feeling of it, I found it difficult to use non shoe related language when describing the object. The exercise required an elevated level of engagement with the now and a removal from expectation because we were attempting to engage with the objects without preconceptions and assumptions. The drawings were therefore documenting a moment of interaction rather than just a physical representation.
When required to reconstruct the object, I began by tracing some of my earlier drawings with wire. I wanted to understand the physicality of the line I had created while using the sense of touch.
Constructing a kind of sculpture from the deconstructed shoe was more challenging than I’d expected and made me realise how unfamiliar I was with working in 3D.
I created scans of the deconstructed shoe by laying the pieces out on the photocopier. Some of the images felt almost x-ray like.
Throughout the day we oscillated between 2D and 3D, culminating in constructing large scale 2D representations of our sculptures.
Beginning with drawing, I observed the structure and moved my hand loosely in response, without attempting a fully representational drawing. I collaged my scanned images, ripping them, signifying the deconstruction of the shoe visually and physically and reapplying them in a new formation (as we had done with the sculptures). I also drew the abstract space between the laces in various points on the page in order to consider representing the 3D in 2D from another perspective.
OSJ Wells Fine Art 