Dancing Barefoot

kc: 14th Jul 2005 - 02:33 GMT

this is intriguing. are the shoes dancing? what's happening in the middle? whose shoes are they? the shoes are resting while the dancer is dancing? the shoes left behind while something more dire happened? are they the photographer's shoes? Is this a narrative or a found moment? etc. it looks cool no matter what. mysteries abound. I like it.

elaine: 14th Jul 2005 - 05:20 GMT

it's a fiction - as close as i get to fiction. the shoes were where they were on the street, but they were near 'god worshippers' who often leave stuff out for folk to have, very often shoes, and the 'drunk' written in the cement was the next picture i took which is outside a pub. together they make a different story. i happened to be listening to patti smith 'dancing barefoot' as i posted them, which struck me as immediately apposite. i did add some text, and then i took it away again because it seemed to make the piece klunky. i had been doing a lot of documentary postings and wanted to get back to doing something more arty

elaine: 14th Jul 2005 - 08:15 GMT

not that i am not interested in other possible narratives of abandoned shoes, cos i am...

Peter: 14th Jul 2005 - 14:04 GMT

that one looks like someone was standing there in their blue shoes, eating skittles, and just disappeared, leaving the shoes/wrapper behind.

elaine: 14th Jul 2005 - 14:42 GMT

i've got a couple of really dark ones i took in liverpool in the 80's but i've just turned the flat over looking for them and they are hiding somewhere

Peter: 14th Jul 2005 - 14:55 GMT

ooh, id love to see those... heres hoping they turn up.

elaine: 14th Jul 2005 - 15:05 GMT

hah! they just did, but i got wayalaid into customising stickers ; )

elaine: 14th Jul 2005 - 15:20 GMT

kc: 14th Jul 2005 - 23:29 GMT

ah, how nice to have patti smith in my head....how come they don't take women's shoes and toss 'em over the lampposts? just noticed the liner's missing in one of the last ones...thought of Judy Garland for some reason. Anyhow, thanks for the explanation...

elaine: 15th Jul 2005 - 05:34 GMT

anytime. i also thought about writing on to the posting that i had been to see patti smith one time and kicked off my shoes and gone home barefoot dancing and sining noisily and doubtless very annoyingly all the way home, but it didn't go with the pictures enough. i think i have become more phobic about how dirty london is in the meantime, because i would not be happy to go barefoot in the street here now, or maybe it's just that i no longer drink, or that i am not hysterically happy at a patti smith concert and wearing uncomfortable shoes

Peter: 15th Jul 2005 - 14:00 GMT

kc: womens shoes make it up there sometimes:

kc: 15th Jul 2005 - 22:24 GMT

hah! that is excellent, the sandals....I'm not barefoot on the pavement much either these days, but I kinda like it, the grittiness, some minor defiance of the dirt and all that, having direct contact. I sometimes go down barefoot to get my mail on a marbled stairway. I seem to be alone in this.

Peter: 18th Jul 2005 - 13:40 GMT

i often take out the trash/recycle or get the mail barefooted. my friend goes out to move his car barefooted. proho isnt that dirty ;)

elaine: 18th Jul 2005 - 13:50 GMT

lucky you. i notice that the main streets in bethnal green seem to have a heavy slime coating which is a mite offputting, however, i am back to brighton next week again, where it is all i can do to remember that clothes might be an idea. i think it is good to keep a bit ahead of the howard hughes tenedencies, otherwise where will it end? i wash my hands when i get in from being on the bus or the tube, which i view as being a touch neurotic, but then i am happy to eat with my hands straight after handling dogs, so it's swings and roundabouts.
when i was a teen i used to make myself sick thinking about all the vile people who had had the fork or spoon i was eating with in their mouths which isn't a good trajectory to follow

kc: 18th Jul 2005 - 15:19 GMT

definitely not a good trajectory. when I call this page up I keep noticing how the shape of the shoe and the grate in #1 echo each other, nice.

elaine: 18th Jul 2005 - 15:30 GMT

mm, then, you see, it was the second photograph, but i tried it round the other way and this worked better visually

GGP: 20th Jul 2005 - 20:14 GMT

I gave yesterday the boot.