Papershoes

Discarded shoes have a special poignancy, seem to conjure the individual wearer more than any other piece of clothing. This is memory work of a kind - consequently I work with shoes that carry the wrinkles and bulges of years of wear and tear. I build up from one or two layers of tissue paper, just enough to hold the shape. The way the paper nearly disintegrates when handled with glue (applied individually to each tiny scrap), makes for a slow and painstaking process. To fashion objects from this perishable, unprecious material is almost paradoxical: they become precarious and precious in turn.

Shoes for a three-legged girl

Dad's shoes

Edith's shoes

Tied pair

And where, and how

And where, and how (detail)

And where, and how (detail)