Opening on Friday August 2 at the Linenhall Arts Centre is To Market, To Market, an unusual, engaging, and evocative exhibition of shoe sculptures by New Zealand-born artist Ruth Pettus.
The exhibition is inspired by the Linenhall’s former existence as the original marketing area for the sale of flax grown in Mayo during the 18th and 19th centuries. As Ruth explains, “The shoes can be seen to represent the individuals and groups of people jostling, conversing, and travelling within the market area. The different textures and directions of the shoes reflects a commercial hubbub of sorting, selling, and buying, that would have most likely been enjoyed as a break from the daily routine. Most of these shoes were made at my brother’s house in County Galway from 2009-2012.” She continued, “I have been working in this medium for 20 years. The shoes are reminiscent of unearthed objects, damaged leftovers, fossils, narratives, the buried. They become an amalgamation of past and present.” Ruth Pettus lives in Baltimore, Maryland and she has exhibited widely in the US, and also in Spain and Russia. The exhibition runs until Saturday August 24.
