One Brown Shoe
2013 / various materials including parcel paper, cat food boxes, Play-Doh, CAD code, string, leather, food remnants from the dishwasher, leather, string, cardboard, brown paper, office supplies, plate steel, Cuban cigars, animal crackers, packing tape and hair, knitting, nut shells / photos: Tom Little
One hundred pairs of mismatched, hand-made brown shoes, made in secret by married couples around the world.
In 2013, one hundred married couples in twelve countries responded to an instruction to each make a single brown shoe using materials found around their homes. They were asked not to discuss the project with their partners and to make their shoe in secret. The shoes were revealed only once both were completed.
Made from cat food boxes, packing tape, knitting, childhood sneakers, stolen office supplies, plate steel, Cuban cigars, animal crackers, nut shells, and a thousand other odds and ends found in the house, each pair of shoes might be seen as a portrait – of two individuals, of one couple, and of the difference between the two.
Made during An Artist Residency in Motherhood. Exhibited at Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, 2013. Released in September 2013 as a limited edition publication.
