
Aesthetically we appear to enter the installation from 'backstage'. The number 38 on the door piece is back to front and the shoes curve to the opposite side of the space. We are not part of the installation but an intruder to a situation.
A suggestion of time is created with the shoes being positioned in a queue- like fashion. The objects themselves appear to be waiting to exit the imagined building. The formation curves into the wall which gives the impression that the queue begins outside of the space. We are made to feel that this is a section of time, that this situation has occurred before we were here and will continue afterwards. There is something unnatural about the shoes in their pairs, we tend to see this happening when taking off our shoes and tidying them away. The shoes shown here seem to be showing motion, exaggerated by the curve, but static because of the close pairing. This aspect of the work is confusing and slightly odd.
Using latex to create an imprint the artist has picked up the lead detailing and dirt from the original object, it appears to have shed its skin. The fragility of the material and elevated positioning of the piece allows for the surface to flutter in surrounding movement. It appears ghostly and quaint, as though it is in fact a memory.
The installation talks of time and of past memory, which is most successfully communicated through the door piece alone. Upon viewing the separate aspects as part of the same artwork the language seems less convincing. The contrasting physicality is an unsuccessful attribute to the overall piece. It leads us to question why the original door has not been used, or why the shoes have not been represented using latex or a similar material. The colours and weight of the shoes are of this world, they are real objects positioned in an unreal, and unconvincing way. The door piece is a sensitive representation of a real object positioned in a way that creates a more poetic and and subtle narrative on its own.
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