“I challenge any art lover to love a canvas as much as a fetishist loves a shoe.”
--Georges Bataille
Shoes are our constant connection between our bodies and the world. By physically elevating us from the earth, shoes serve as the bridge between the spheres of the sacred and the profane, and transgress the boundaries of our private and public selves. Throughout our lives, we walk thousands of miles, wearing-in and wearing-out these functional objects of adornment as we navigate our environment and our identities.
As both works of art and mundane necessities, shoes have contained and conveyed many meanings across history and cultures. Shoes have served as markers of humanity, as intimate memorials to the wearer, as surreal absurdities that contort and deform, as beatific works of art and signs of status, as practical objects of protection, as pop cultural icons, as forms of bondage that regulate and control, and as both commodity fetishes and fetish objects of erotic desire.
Featuring the collections of Teri Levin, Amy Ruddick, Joseph Herring, Nathaniel Johnston, Taylor Battiste, the University of West Florida Historic Collections, and works of art by contemporary artists Malika Green, Mike Bourscheid, and Lenka Clayton, this exhibition features a sweeping presentation of footwear that includes examples of high fashion and design, sneaker culture, streetwear and drop culture, vernacular and historical shoes, and conceptual, performative, and surrealist shoe art. By exploring artistic interpretations of shoes, the nature of collecting, the closet as a critical form, as well as the process and materiality of shoes in our interactive gallery, Made to Last: A Shoe Makerspace, the exhibition Worn In / Worn Out: Soul of the Shoe attends to shoes as earthly icons and sacred spaces of adornment that embody fashion, design, consumerism and consumption, personal expression, choice and control, and the aesthetics of the social and the everyday.
Note: In support of shoe-distributing nonprofit Soles4Souls, bring in a gently worn pair of shoes for free entry into the museum all summer.
--Georges Bataille
Shoes are our constant connection between our bodies and the world. By physically elevating us from the earth, shoes serve as the bridge between the spheres of the sacred and the profane, and transgress the boundaries of our private and public selves. Throughout our lives, we walk thousands of miles, wearing-in and wearing-out these functional objects of adornment as we navigate our environment and our identities.
As both works of art and mundane necessities, shoes have contained and conveyed many meanings across history and cultures. Shoes have served as markers of humanity, as intimate memorials to the wearer, as surreal absurdities that contort and deform, as beatific works of art and signs of status, as practical objects of protection, as pop cultural icons, as forms of bondage that regulate and control, and as both commodity fetishes and fetish objects of erotic desire.
Featuring the collections of Teri Levin, Amy Ruddick, Joseph Herring, Nathaniel Johnston, Taylor Battiste, the University of West Florida Historic Collections, and works of art by contemporary artists Malika Green, Mike Bourscheid, and Lenka Clayton, this exhibition features a sweeping presentation of footwear that includes examples of high fashion and design, sneaker culture, streetwear and drop culture, vernacular and historical shoes, and conceptual, performative, and surrealist shoe art. By exploring artistic interpretations of shoes, the nature of collecting, the closet as a critical form, as well as the process and materiality of shoes in our interactive gallery, Made to Last: A Shoe Makerspace, the exhibition Worn In / Worn Out: Soul of the Shoe attends to shoes as earthly icons and sacred spaces of adornment that embody fashion, design, consumerism and consumption, personal expression, choice and control, and the aesthetics of the social and the everyday.
Note: In support of shoe-distributing nonprofit Soles4Souls, bring in a gently worn pair of shoes for free entry into the museum all summer.
PROGRAMS:
DRAG YOUR HEELS
THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2019
6:00PM - 9:00PM
PURCHASE TICKETS
Join us for a heel-stomping drag show with local drag legends Lauren Mitchell, Monica Heart and Madame Hex! Innovative craft beer provided by up-and-coming downtown Pensacola breweries Odd Colony Brewing Co. and ALGA Beer Co. who will highlight their passion and process alongside artists/vendors Big Jerk Soda Co. (serving up champagne cocktails using their new flavored syrups) Workweek Studio (screen printed posters), Poppy Garcia (live caricatures), Heidi VanValkenburg (taxidermy insects and critters), and KeepAwayFromCats (metalsmith / bone / semiprecious stone jewelry). Madame Hex will also be on hand to put on a 5-minute drag face on you before you hit our drag photo booth!
DRAG YOUR HEELS
THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2019
6:00PM - 9:00PM
PURCHASE TICKETS
Join us for a heel-stomping drag show with local drag legends Lauren Mitchell, Monica Heart and Madame Hex! Innovative craft beer provided by up-and-coming downtown Pensacola breweries Odd Colony Brewing Co. and ALGA Beer Co. who will highlight their passion and process alongside artists/vendors Big Jerk Soda Co. (serving up champagne cocktails using their new flavored syrups) Workweek Studio (screen printed posters), Poppy Garcia (live caricatures), Heidi VanValkenburg (taxidermy insects and critters), and KeepAwayFromCats (metalsmith / bone / semiprecious stone jewelry). Madame Hex will also be on hand to put on a 5-minute drag face on you before you hit our drag photo booth!
ARTIST TALK: MALIKA GREEN
FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 2019
6:30PM - 7:30PM
Join us for a free BYOB sit-down with exhibiting artist Malika Green and Director and Chief Curator Amy Bowman-McElHone.
ART & SOLE
SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 2019
6:00PM - 9:00PM
PURCHASE TICKETS
Join us for a night with exhibiting collector Teri Levin. Enjoy music by DJ Ramsey, hor d'oeuvres, and refreshments. Shop artfully at the SCOUT pop-up shop in the museum.
