THIRD SHOE

Two ideas triggered this work: the copycat culture in China, and my personal experience of travelling.

At home I separated my favourite and most worn pair of shoes, sending the left one to Chongqing by post, and taking the right shoe on the plane with me to China. The idea was to let the Chinese make a new left shoe for the right one while the original left shoe was travelling to China by post to rejoin its pair. Against my expectations, and something which was dictated by the given situation, I myself got involved in the copying process. One of the reasons was the size of my foot (40): I had to sculpt and mould an oversized (non-Chinese-standard) woman’s shoe-last for my left shoe. 10 days later, just in time for the workshop’s closing exhibition, the new left shoe was ready. Two days prior to that the old left shoe had happily arrived from Germany by post.
I then wore the newly Chinese-made left shoe and the original German-made right shoe to the opening evening.

2013

Performance /experience.
Leather, rubber, a zipper.

Workshop Approach to Realities, Organhouse, Chongqing, China.
Curated by Michael Voets und Ni Kun.

Related:

+ Third Shoe, Düsseldorf