Christopher Madden

footwear

  • Surrealist photomontage – wellington boots with arms

    contemporary surrealist photomontage - wellington boots with arms emerging

    Surrealist photomontage – wellington boots with arms

    Photomontage. June 2018

    A photomontage showing arms emerging from the tops of a pair of wellington boots.
    The arms are sinking down into the boots, as though the footware is devouring the owner of the arms. The theme of predatory footwear is one that I’ve explored several times over the past few decades. Another example can be seen here – shoes with teeth.
    Or are the arms emerging from the boots? An example of ambiguity in art.
    This photomontage was created while I was exploring various options for creating a sculpture that included wellington boots. I feel that these boots have a strong sculptural presence, and I’m quite surprised how under-represented they are in the field of sculpture.
    The image, which I think probably falls into the category of contemporary surrealism, is meant to be both humorous and unsettling.

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  • Shoes with extended laces – photograph

    contemporary photography - slightly sinister shoes

    Shoes with extended laces

    Photograph. June 2018

    This photograph shows a pair of walking boots with their laces extended away from them.
    I took the photograph when I noticed the boots on the floor (they are my boots). The laces and the lighting from the window create a strangely unsettling effect, to me at least.
    The photo was taken while I was visiting Oban in Scotland – on the same visit as this slightly surreal photograph.
    .

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  • Last Cigarette – a surreal assemblage.

    Surrealist dada contemporary sculpture involvinng pareidolia - cigarette and shoe last

    Last Cigarette. Found object sculpture.

    Shoe last, cigarette, lamp base. May 2018

    A surreal or dada found object sculpture made from a cobbler’s shoe last with a cigarette inserted into the circular hole in the last that is designed to accommodate a handle. The last is mounted on a lamp stand.

    The sculpture utilises the human sensory condition known as pareidolia, the interpretation of shapes as human faces, to create a surreal head. Pareidolia is essential for the interpretation of a lot of art, especially art in which faces are merely suggested by, say, a few strokes of a paintbrush. In some art pareidolia is actually a curse though – think of the number of abstract images that are ruined when you see an unintentional face in them.
    The sculpture’s title, Last Cigarette, utilises the human tendency to reinterpret words to create puns – in this case the word ‘last’ referring to the wooden cobbler’s last, meaning that the cigarette is the last’s last cigarette.

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  • Mirrors, reflections, perception and illusion.

    mirror based art - shoe reflections in a mirror

    Shoe reflected in a mirror – the art of illusion

    Shoes, mirror. 2013

    This is a version of an artwork exploring reflections in mirrors, in this case based on a pair of shoes and a mirror. The shoes are positioned so that the reflection of each shoe in the mirror coincides exactly with the other shoe on the opposite side of the mirror, merging the real shoe and the reflection of the other shoe into what appears to be one shoe.
    Like a lot of my works that involve illusion this one explores the line between reality and our interpretation of what we perceive, our perception of reality.

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  • Carnivorous shoes with teeth

    surrealist shoes with mouths and teeth

    Carnivorous shoes with teeth

    January 2017

    A study for a surreal work composed of a pair of shoes with mouths and teeth. The teeth in this study were added digitally.
    These particular shoes were chosen partly because the holes at the toe end of the shoes give the impression of eyes.
    An unsettling aspect of this concept is that it is normal for a person to put their feet into shoes – however these shoes look as though they would devour anything that was placed in their ‘mouths’. They are almost lying in wait for feet to be placed inside them.
    This work may be interpreted as being a metaphor for the manner in which consumerism devours people (especially via the connsumerism of clothing and fashion).
    I thought of the concept of carnivorous shoes that devour their wearer many years ago and drew it as a sketch. It’s currently misplaced in my studio so I’m not sure of the year.

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  • Perception and deception. Odd shoes reflected in a mirror

    Humorous contemporary art - a mirror with the reflection of a shoe

    Perception and deception. Odd shoes reflected in a mirror

    Shoes, mirror. January 2013

    Part of a series of works involving the reflection of shoes in a mirror, with the shoes positioned so that the reflection of each shoe in the mirror coincides exactly with the other shoe on the opposite side of the mirror.
    In this work the shoes involved are not a pair.
    This creates a double dissonance in the viewer. Firstly the viewer has to interpret the fact that the reflected part of the shoe is not part of the other shoe, and secondly the viewer has to interpret the fact that the two shoes are different (with the degree of difference varying depending on the position of the viewer and thus the amount of the shoe that is behind the mirror that is visible).
    Like a lot of my works that involve mirrors, reflections, perception and optical illusions this one explores the line between reality and our interpretation of what we perceive. Hopefully it includes an element of humour too.

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