Artist Statement

Shoefiti World, 2023, 2026, steel and worn children’s shoes, 38 × 38 × 88 in.

Shoefiti Statement

Growing up in pre-hip, Brooklyn in the 1970s presented us with some long unstructured summers. Maybe we were emulating the bigger kids or maybe we were marking territory like young wolves, but I think we just thought it was cool as we tried and tried to get our old sneakers to wrap around the electrical power lines on our local street corners. Apparently, this is a world-wide phenomenon called Shoefiti, (or shoe-tossing) that combines the words Shoes with Graffiti. It is not that easy, and it takes a while to get

the two lace-connected shoes to wrap and spin around those high-up wires. As kids, sometimes we proudly succeeded but we all knew we could never tell our moms. In “Shoefiti World” I am presenting a totemic rusty wireframe flat-earth map of the world, featuring Dante’s 9 rings of hell as a base and an empty Machiavellian version of the kingdom of Heaven at the top. Worn-out little children’s sneakers are tossed at random nations marking territory and perhaps the duality of foolish men and their globe dominating egos with the innocence of little children growing up in this absurd world, just like we were – back in the day.

One Blood (after and before), 2026, embroidered Red Cross blankets on blue tarps, each piece is 72 × 106 in.

One Blood (after and before) Statement

The American Red Cross is an enormous aid agency that efforts to prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of emergencies, be they domestic or international and born of natural disaster or the brutality of war. While I largely support this agency’s mission, I have long taken issue with the exclusivity of their logo. The design of the Red Cross originates from the First Geneva Convention in 1864, and the symbol represents an inverted Swiss flag. The agency makes no pretense in that symbol’s representation and direct link to Christendom. In the world of Islam, a Red Crescent is the chosen symbol, in Israel it is the Star of David and in other places the Red Crystal is presented. Over the decades many cultures (and religions) have presented other red symbols to express a similar indicator of emergency medical aid. The common link to all these symbols is the universal color of blood, red.

I have carefully embroidered all the current and past emblems of our world, many emergency aid agencies, into one universal blood drop and then also inverted the red blood drop to an alien green.