Do you ever see shoes dangling from drainpipes, wires or trees? A toddler's trainer, a lone stiletto stood in the gutter?
Each pair of shoes has a story: they take us on journeys, silently feature in our everyday lives and end up in the oddest of places. The Shoe Tales project is looking to document these connections between people and their footwear, and play with the art of letter writing and sending messages through the post.
Blank postcards have been left around a variety of public spaces up and down the country, with brief instructions on how to tell a Shoe Tale, and the address to post your contribution to.
The postcards recieved tell tales of borrowed, old, beautiful, ugly, well travelled, impractical, prized, oversized and never worn shoes, to name a few. Shoes left behind in childhood. Shoes with a memory or moment attached to them. What is your most memorable pair of shoes?
Every postcard submitted gives a glimpse into someone's life, someone else's shoes. This is a communal project that anyone can be involved in and enjoy. The project celebrates the cult and curiosity that surrounds the shoe - an object that’s been part of people’s lives for centuries.
Shoetales celebrates storytelling as an expressive, inclusive art form. In this instance, the diverse range of postcards contributed create one big story about people and their shoes, conjured by many memories, imaginations and voices from all over the world.
