fabric, acrylic, pigment and thread
(installation views at the Studio Museum In Harlem
After I became pregnant I began to see a connection between motherhood and labor. The installation “Red Shoes” is informed by my mother who had worked in the garment industry. Although both men and women inhabit these spaces, it is really women, often mothers, who form the majority of this labor force. This installation was created from 2000 pairs of small shoes I made by sewing small bags out of muslin, which were dyed and hardened with pigment and acrylic. At a close inspection, the shoes can look like elf shoes, baby booties, or fairy slippers, yet from a distance they can look like a bed of flowers. Also, the character of the shoes alludes to the illusions created by the fashion industry that hides its unethical labor practices behind a facade of fantasy. Further, the shoes connote a form of women’s work, that of traditional knitting and sewing baby booties. While the representation of shoes in art has often functioned as a stand-in for the intended subject, here the representation of the subject is twice removed. While the shoes are playful, they are symbolic – not representative of the babies who might fill them, but for the mothers and laborers who manufacture them.