Sketch of the Original Shoe from Three Perspectives
Ideation Drawing of the Final Work
The second project we do in Space/Materiality class is another practice of mechanical joinaries. We were to create a shoe in its real size with different gauges of wire. Then we can utilize other materials to create an environment for the shoe to meet the demands of our assigned client.
As my client and I are both far away from home, she asked me to create the shoe in response to the concept of home. She also specially asked to incorporate playfulness and joy in the final work. The main colors appeared in the shoe are my client’s favorite colors and the colors she would associate with her home (orange, blue, and green). Personally to me, I often associate the concept of home with my childhood. It was a time when I had all the time in the world and ignorant of experiences. So my home was like a magical palace to me where I can always find new things and explore unknown objects, either daily supplies or special artifacts from my parents. Hence, I also added some mysterious, fantasy elements to the shoe.
Another demand from the client is that she would like to have the shoe demonstrate both a indoor and an outdoor environment, as she feels it important for her home to have both. So I decided to add the element of chairs and a table into the final work. However, I found it hard to convert the shape (space) of a shoe into an actual house, so I went by conceptualizing the shoe outline and the added diminish the measurement of size and scale. The round surface visible from the top view of the shoe weaved with green and yellow threads is the surface of the table. The table has three legs of different lengths for support on the shoe structure.
Eight smaller sized chairs are installed at the back of the shoe, elevating the shoe 1.5 inches above the standing surface. This way, the shoe itself is emphasised and the homey feeling is directly conveyed. To have the weaving element cohesive in the shoe, I have also made two other round surfaces with threads and wire to put on the shoe as decorations and atmosphere booster to create the mysterious feeling of home that I have for my home when I was a child.
Other than the chairs and table, I don’t have any other concrete, realistic figures of any indication of home or furniture. This is to refer to the genera abstract style of mine and to also refer to the two artists that my client likes.
The first artist is Joan Miro. He is a French artist who was a key figure in the surreal movement and was known for his abstract lines and use of vivid colors. An example of his painting is on the right. Therefore, I used wires to imitate the lines of Miro’s paintings. The circular shapes created by the beads are also inspired by Miro’s paintings where he would include various round shapes.
The second artist is Alexander Calder who is known for creating minimalism hanging sculptures such as the one on the right. This is where I got my inspiration from creating the hanging pieces on my shoe. Additionally, I discovered that both Miro and Calder would use round shapes in their works to create the surrealism fantasies. Hence, the many circular elements in my final work.
Here is a link to the PDF of my info-graph for the shoe Annie Zhuang_infograph. Below are detailed pictures of the final work.
