The Sneaker Project 

Our choice of clothing and footwear says a lot about how we perceive ourselves and how we present ourselves to the world. This assignment is about creating a sneaker that personifies some aspect of you or an important moment in your life. Food boxes, photos, shopping bags, letters, or any other paper materials are fair game, but the materials should reinforce the ideas behind the work. Scale will also play an important role in how you get your ideas across to the viewer, whether the piece is oversized, miniaturized, or life sized.

Andy Yoder says that the project “brings attention to the impact of consumer culture on the planet’s environment.”

What does the choice and availability of materials is your sculpture say about you? Your culture? 

Instructions

For this project, you will create one sculpture of one shoe. This shoe will be made from found paper and cardboard materials that you source for yourself. Make sure to get enough to work with, one box does not make a shoe!

As you are collecting your materials, begin researching shoe possibilities. You are not limited to just sneakers, consider boots, high heels etc. What kinds of contexts does your choice of shoe bring to the sculpture?

After selecting your shoe, start designing your pattern. Some shoe types are more complex than others, pay attention to the details!

You might at this point make a test shoe, in whole or part, and look at the scale of the shoe in relation to your materials.

Finally, construct your shoe! Remember, craftsmanship and details are important!

Timeline

9/3 Project intro and studio visit with Andy Yoder

9/10 Have your materials gathered, sketches and patterns in your Miro sketchbook, meet with small group for in process critique. Ask questions and work.

9/17 Project due-Critique

Rubric

1. Did the student collect sufficient and interesting materials? 

2. Did the student plan, sketch and develop their project in the online sketchbook?

3. Craftsmanship and attention to detail of the final project.

4. Complex and thought-out relationship between the material and shoe-form.

Inspiration

What are the implications of sculpting one piece of popular culture out of another? How do the materials and subject matters interact?

Artists have a long history if using found cultural materials. Starting with the collages of Picasso and Braque, to the sculptures of Joana Vasconcelos, artists have mined the world around them for materials that carry a cultural significance. Combining those materials and creating an image of something else contextualizes and re-contextualizes all the parts of the work. Look at the examples below and think about the many relationships between the materials, subject matters, and contexts.