Blood, Sweat and Tears
A pair of leather shoes, worn for over a year during travel across Latin America, were later filled with 4 pounds of sea salt, mirroring the regional average annual salt consumption per person according to scientific data. In time, the interaction between the salt, the leather, and ambient moisture draws water into the material, causing the salt to dissolve, migrate, and re-crystallize on the shoes’ surface—eventually spilling onto the floor. This quiet transformation registers the body’s capacity to convert energy into movement, leaving an imprint of lived experience that materializes the invisible labor of endurance, wear, and accumulation. By linking the metabolic with the elemental, the work proposes a reflection on consumption—not only of matter but of time, effort, and terrain.
1/4
Year: 2015-2016
Medium: Leather shoes, 4 pounds of sea salt, humidity, time
Dimensions: Variable
Installation at Present Company, New York.
