Discarded shoes have a special poignancy, more than any other piece of clothing do they conjure up the individual who wore them. Shoes that have been lived in, wrinkles and creases and the faint bulges left by the shape of feet are translated directly into the object made. Tissue paper is the lightest and most translucent of papers, and offers a wide range of vibrant colours to choose from. Light and lightness interest me here. I wanted to explore the paper’s characteristics, using them, heightening them, changing them. The feel of the paper, the way it almost disintegrates when handled with the glue (which is applied individually to each tiny scrap), makes for a slow and painstaking process. The shoes are built up from one or two layers of paper, just enough to hold their shape. To make objects from this very perishable, fragile and non-precious material is almost paradoxical, as the objects made become precarious and precious in turn.
‘A woman’s life in shoes’ is made from Japanese paper.