45-32, 2015

Two small shoes lie slotted into the opening of a pair of old fashioned men’s lace-ups. The laces of the different sized ceramic shoes are co-joined, thus forging an inseparable bond between the two. Or as Ulrike Rehm (1976, Germany) puts it, “representing the male equivalent of the umbilical cord.” The title of this work is a direct reference to the shoe size of a father and to that of his child. Speaking to universal bonds of filial and parental love, safety, connection and the circle of life, this tactile and intimate piece takes us back to the common realm of childhood; to shared memories of balancing on a father’s feet before being danced around the room.