The Shoemaker's Shrine

This installation is a response to Northamptonshire's shoe industry both past and present. The central piece consists of hanging cast latex shoes suspended in a cluster, each lit by its own pool of light. Wax casts of shoes and lasts are arranged in rows under-lit by light boxes. Entrapped within the translucent casts are various pressed flowers, field grasses and butterflies which make reference to the Victorian "secret Lanuage of Flowers". A memorial to the shoe industry's Victorian heyday. The sound piece that accompanies the installation was created solely from recordings made during visits to shoe factories in Northampton.