Jen November 16th, 2007
*phew* … some art pieces do NOT want to be born, creating havoc and problems and aggrevation through its entire journey out into the world. This was one of those pieces.
A bit of history, on a yahoo assemblage list I belong to, one of the members posted her contribution to the Global Shoe Project created by Stella Meades, a Canadian ceramic artist who in 1996 created 1001 ceramic shoes for an installation entitled "footnote", a
…visual illustration of numbers and facts that are difficult to comprehend intellectually.
Earlier this year Stella began to think about how the present war would affect the children:
…my thoughts turned to questions of what war-affected children might need in order to begin to heal. At this time I had close to 900 shoes. Rather than make this a solitary project, I decided to invite other people to help. I sent interested people a shoe and asked them to make something to hold, cover, or contain it that would symbolize an alleviation of the loss or damage the shoe represented.
I contacted Stella asking if she had any extra shoes, I would love to participate in the project. She generously obliged and my finished contribution - winging its way back west - is pictured above.
I knew I wanted to create a house for the "shoe" and even though it was obviously a child’s shoe, I needed a more obvious face to identify with. I had a broken china doll that would work perfectly - blank eyes so the viewer can fill in the blank and of course, a statement on how nations are turning a blind eye to the families and children affected as the war continues on. I also knew that whatever the house would end up being, I wanted it to be patched, not perfect, just like Real Life.
I used molding paste to glue the face into the shoe as well as fill in any gaps, first gessoed then painted with blackened bronze metal paint which I also applied to the entire shoe both for consistency as well as thinking about bronzed baby shoes and all those associated emotions - love, childhood, proud parents, home, family etc. I found the perfect wood box to fit the shoe/child and scouted around trying to find the right embellishment as the box was very plain. In a box of frames I found just the right dentil work I was after but it was made of plastic. Herein begins the aggrevating part!
I had to cut the frame in order to fit it to the box - a few cuts of the mitre saw? no problem! - but in using the saw the plastic chipped quite badly. Still. No worries, I thought, nothing a bit of filler can’t fix. Heh. Hindsight, right? Not quite so easily as it turns out. I spent the better part of a week, painting then gluing, nailing then gluing, touching then gluing this frickin’ frame. I did however learn some valuable lessons:
- The best glue for plastic? 5 minute epoxy.
- Always reinforce corners on frames that will be taking unknown abuse.
- Always glue AND nail those reinforced corners.
- Use the right product for the right job. ie. NOT wood filler for plastic. duh!
- Think things through before blindly carrying on. 5 minutes of forethought reduces HOURS of frustration and idle drying time.
Having said all of that, I still thoroughly like the rough/patchiness of the frame. It suits the theme and my intent I think.
The brass "house" piece gave me equal aggrevation mainly because of the frame and it’s lack of sturdiness. But again, I do like how it turned out. The "world" charm imparts a more global viewpoint and again the timeworn metal shows that the reality and the ideal are so far apart, that any advancement is hard won.
I’m glad I was able to participate in Stella’s project , the shoes are being shown in various locations in Manitoba and British Columbia. As the shoes are sold others replace them. Unfortunately, too similar to the children of war.
