This piece is called First Day Back. It's made of plaster and shoes and I'm just in the process of submitting it for inclusion in the RWA Autumn Exhibition. It's part of a series of pieces I made rather privately this winter. Although they didn't fit ostensibly into the 'normal' type of work I make, I felt at the time that there was a kind of truth to them. Rather than being the result of gathering acorns from under exquisite and powerful trees, or finding rusty objects during riverside walks, these pieces reflect the day to day reality of my gathering - the gathering up of shoes! Needless to say there are many other objects scattered on my home floor that need picking up on an endless basis, but there is something quite symbolic about shoes. In a way, of course, many of them are also very sculptural objects in themselves.
There are actually very few of you who follow this blog. And I post rarely because I always feel that I should say something that has some meaning or post an image that has some power. So, today I have set up a new facebook page for my work. I'm going to try and use it more fluidly than these posts. I'm going to keep the work facebook page separate from the one I use for social reasons. Funnily enough that separation - or lack of it! - may just be what First Day Back is all about.
If you'd like to subscribe to my new facebook page it is: www.facebook.com/annagillespiesculptor
