Arman

Arman, Schuhe (Shoes), 1965

Each work in Arman’s series of originals presents a single shoe cut in half down the length of its sole. The two halves are then displayed in a shadow box with their interiors facing outward, allowing one to see the worn fabric within. Schuhe belongs to Arman’s Coupes (Cuts) series, begun in 1961, in which the artist cut and revealed the normally hidden insides of objects. This practice demystifies objects, revealing the details of their structure, but also defamiliarizes them, provoking the experience of seeing a common object as if anew. Here the arrangement of the shoe halves atop mirrored backings also creates the impression that one is looking at  pairs of shoes rather than just single shoes, suggesting a play between sameness and difference, pairing and dividing. This work, like Poubelle (Trash can), Arman’s contribution to the 1964 collection of Edition MAT, reflects the manner in which the artist sought to understand the production and consumption processes of postwar consumer culture precisely by being intimately involved in them.

Image credit

Arman (American, b. France, 1928–2005), Schuhe (Shoes), 1965. Halved shoe mounted on Mylar in painted wood shadow box, 97/100, 13 x 17 13/16 x 2 3/4 in. (33 x 45.2 x 7 cm). Published by Edition MAT / Galerie Der Spiegel, Cologne. Ludwig Museum Koblenz, Germany. © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.