Tuesday 27 January 2009

Winter gift


I want to sing chant yodel my thanks to one Beth Elliott, chair of the Bermondsey Artists Group, most generous of spirits, who I'd not met before: She came Thursday night, tenderly packed my work, took it to the gallery and put it up for me – without her the shoes would not have stepped off my shelf at home and out into the world. Some of you have seen them here, but now ‘And where, and how’ can be seen as part of Rummage, an exhibition at CafĂ© Gallery, right in the middle of Southwark Park, London. Beth’s icing sugar sisters are sleeping/
dreaming nearby.
This is an old photograph, the work looks so much better now, displayed as it is on a low wide plinth at the centre of one of the gallery's spaces, where the shoes can be looked at from all around and above. They look glorious, beautiful, fragile and true, and I was amazed to be touched by them anew. A great gift, just when I'm trying
to re-assess my art practice.

Material: Japan paper.
Dimensions: ~ 150 cm x 25 cm x 15 cm
The shoes are life-size as real worn shoes were used as moulds.

5 comments:

redredday said...

oh dear Marjojo, this is wonderful, and so is Beth. the kindness of strangers always makes one's day, doesn't it?

and i'm delighted by your amazement at your own work and how boldly you described it to be glorious and beautiful. these shoes are one of my favorites of your work. i so wish i can be there to see it in person.

Catherine Scriven said...

Well done, it's great when work gets seen by others.

Kate Fernyhough said...

these are so beautiful, I haven't seen them before. I'm glad they're in a gallery to be seen, experienced.

Roxana said...

oh
you know, I was surprised at my own reaction, just stood there looking at the picture and not a thought forming in my mind, but an overwhelming wave of emotions, so hard to describe and to separate from one another... and this kind of pain in the breast, as I feel it when faced with the frailty of human life, and the beauty of it. it is amazing work, marjojo.

Ursula Achten said...

it's perhaps the same feeling that I have when I manage to step back from the things I've done and thought and suddenly am able to see things in a different manner.
It's then that I stop frowning and sighing and it's the dawn of an inside smile.

Your shoes are amazing, there'S a hole life in every pair!