in brief: artist creates shoes inspired by ex girlfriends
Image: Sebastian Errazuriz, ‘The Boss,’ 12 Shoes for 12 Lovers
New York artist, Sebastian Errazuriz, has released a collection of women’s shoes inspired by his ex-girlfriends. The collection, 12 Shoes for 12 Lovers, debuted at the annual Miami Beach Art Basel.
There is a shoe to represent each of Errazuriz’s past girlfriends, and each one has a nickname that highlights the quirks and charms of the particular relationship. It’s an interesting idea and some of the shoes are impressive.
Unfortunately, though, the artist is a bit of a jerk.
On a Tumblr page dedicated to the project, Errazuriz revealed the shoes one by one. He also included a story about each of his 12 ex-girlfriends – and this is where it gets weird. A lot of the descriptions are more or less the artist complaining about his ex. This is what he had to say about ‘Rachel, The Boss.’
‘She was a hardcore feminist but in bed she would pretend to be a little girl and volunteer giving me stripteases or want me to spank her. The next day if I would bring her flowers she would give me an hour long speech about how macho it was to buy flowers for a girl.’
And ‘Cry Baby, Alexandra.’
‘In the dark Alexandra continued to sob and text her ex for the rest of the night. I made an attempt at another round of hot “make up sex” but she obviously couldn’t care less about me. She no longer cared about anyone but the “dick head asshole boyfriend”.’
And to top it all off, he’s included nude pictures of each woman, which he admits he didn’t have permission to do. But Errazuriz has defended his decision for the sake of art, saying that no faces were shown.
The concept of the collection is intriguing, but the tone of the stories sours it. It comes across as spiteful and ignorant. Each description feels more like a vent for the artist’s feelings, and detracts from the actual work. Perhaps Sebastian Errazuriz should have thought about these a bit more, or left them out altogether.
