Floating Land 2011 - work in progress - Wendy

Shoes have many cultural symbolic references: to journeys, individuality, fertility, and to making a transition in life’s journey both physically and spiritually.
This work is about the politicizing of “land” and “water”, two elements of the Earth, and how they become a social and environmental issue and political “football”.
Whether through immigration or as a result of climate change and consequent rising sea levels, increasing population will affect our cultures, and our use of water in all its forms,(drinking and bathing water, water to play in and on etc). The landscape is changing and will continue to do so: decreasing forests due to population increases in turn affect the earth’s natural water cycles.
These red shoes, imbued with text and drawings relating to housing and water levels, are fragile: connected by threads, to past lives and future plans. They will not last, nor take you far. They are as fragile as the earth we stand on, the water we drink, and the air we breathe.