This series consists of 30 drawings made in 2010, where I asked people—friends, strangers, passersby—to let me draw their shoes. At times, I had to settle for taking a 35mm photo with my disposable camera and later create the drawing from the photograph.
Shoes are mass-produced objects, banal, everyday items we wear to protect our feet. They get worn down quickly, but their story lies in the person who wears them.
For me, each person makes their shoes their own. Shoes offer clues about taste, through the choice of shape and color; about personality, whether they are kept perfectly clean or worn and torn; and about movement, in the way they walk. Sometimes shoes even reveal a profession—worker, farmer, soldier—or an affiliation with a subcultural identity.
In short, shoes reflect the socio-cultural context of the person wearing them.
Shoes
Bogotá, Colombia, 2010,
India ink on paper,
15 x 21 cm each. Series of 30.