Slipper Curio Kiosk
Lizzetta LeFalle-Collins || [ CURATORIAL STATEMENT ] use compass to view walls
Curatorial statement
I remember reading the exhibition catalog for the exhibition Island Thresholds: Contemporary Art from the Caribbean, curated by Sam Scott, Assistant Curator in the Russell W. Knight Department of Maritime Art and History at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts. Island Thresholds focused on the works of contemporary artists from the Caribbean—Marc Latamie (Martinique/USA), Kcho (Cuba), Tony Capellan (Dominican Republic), and David Boxer (Jamaica).
For island and coastal communities in much of the world, the idea of a lush green paradise-like resort is often replaced with the reality of post-colonial ills that include corruption, poverty, and political upheaval. On thing that many island and coastal communities have in common is the inexpensive rubber thonged-slipper that protects the foot from the ground or sand but does not become compromised as the water. Tony Capellan used the rubber slipper in his 1996 Mar Caribe (Caribbean Sea), which was a part of the Island Thresholds exhibition. Although working with found objects since 2003, in 2008, Patrick Tagoe-Turkson began collecting the rubber slippers with other found objects--part of the debris that washed up on Ghanaian beaches. "The ocean, thus, became my major source of inspiration since it was obvious scene that struck me within this environment. I thus began a daily collection of drift plastic materials from the ocean for my work of which out of these items; slippers became most inspirational to me because of its mass availability at the beach and its rich varied colours" said Patrick.
Patrick's Curio Kiosk intervention for the Kumasi Symposium is made of the slippers he collected for a year off the beaches of southern Ghana. He states further "My concept of found art is based on my historical traditional Effutu Asafo flag art tradition. I use found objects not so much for the sake of aesthetics as most contemporary artist do. To me, the found objects that I collect for my art signs that represent people, concepts and ideas in contemporary societies that reflect the attributes of those objects. Thus the found slipper debris used to construct this kiosk and the series of performances that came with it and their meanings have direct connection with people, their history, their behavior, trade, the different standards of living in contemporary societies, and other social concerns of today."
Lizzetta LeFalle-Collins
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I remember reading the exhibition catalog for the exhibition Island Thresholds: Contemporary Art from the Caribbean, curated by Sam Scott, Assistant Curator in the Russell W. Knight Department of Maritime Art and History at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts. Island Thresholds focused on the works of contemporary artists from the Caribbean—Marc Latamie (Martinique/USA), Kcho (Cuba), Tony Capellan (Dominican Republic), and David Boxer (Jamaica).
For island and coastal communities in much of the world, the idea of a lush green paradise-like resort is often replaced with the reality of post-colonial ills that include corruption, poverty, and political upheaval. On thing that many island and coastal communities have in common is the inexpensive rubber thonged-slipper that protects the foot from the ground or sand but does not become compromised as the water. Tony Capellan used the rubber slipper in his 1996 Mar Caribe (Caribbean Sea), which was a part of the Island Thresholds exhibition. Although working with found objects since 2003, in 2008, Patrick Tagoe-Turkson began collecting the rubber slippers with other found objects--part of the debris that washed up on Ghanaian beaches. "The ocean, thus, became my major source of inspiration since it was obvious scene that struck me within this environment. I thus began a daily collection of drift plastic materials from the ocean for my work of which out of these items; slippers became most inspirational to me because of its mass availability at the beach and its rich varied colours" said Patrick.
Patrick's Curio Kiosk intervention for the Kumasi Symposium is made of the slippers he collected for a year off the beaches of southern Ghana. He states further "My concept of found art is based on my historical traditional Effutu Asafo flag art tradition. I use found objects not so much for the sake of aesthetics as most contemporary artist do. To me, the found objects that I collect for my art signs that represent people, concepts and ideas in contemporary societies that reflect the attributes of those objects. Thus the found slipper debris used to construct this kiosk and the series of performances that came with it and their meanings have direct connection with people, their history, their behavior, trade, the different standards of living in contemporary societies, and other social concerns of today."
Lizzetta LeFalle-Collins
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