1 post tagged “shoe trees”

Shoefiti 1

It's called several things. Shoe tossing. Shoe flinging. Shoefiti. Everyone's seen them. Shoes hanging from power/telephone lines, sometimes even trees. I took a polaroid recently of a pair, yet thought little of it. Some time later, a friend of mine told me, "You know that's a gang thing, right?"

I actually didn't (I unfortunately lack much street cred). But it then piqued my curiosity to find out even more. In my subsequent researching, I discovered that the practice is shrouded in mystery and urban myths. One explanation is that it is indeed a sign of a gang's turf. Another explanation was that it signified where either crack cocaine or heroin was being dealt. Still others attach it to such negative events as bullying or vandalism. Yet what soon surprised me was that as many sinister explanations that existed, there were just as many beautiful explanations. It's said that sometimes it is done as a rite of passage for such things as marriage or graduation. Sometimes it is done in memory of someone who's died. But perhaps one of the most beautiful explanations comes from the appearance of Shoe Trees, trees or poles with hundreds of shoes hanging from them, but started by one dreamer throwing his shoes up in to the sky in hopes that others would follow over the years, perhaps to create a way to trace history back through the hanging shoes, or maybe simply to make the world a more beautiful and magical place.

And so I made the connection. This is humanity. The ambiguity. The mystery. The simultaneous good and evil. Individualism and community. It was all there in the shoes.

Shoefiti 2

With all these ideas swimming through my head and having discussed it with a few friends, another friend walks up and sees one of my photos of the hanging shoes.

Friend: "Oh hey, did you take that of the shoes next to (certain place in town)?"
Me: "Yeah I did."
Friend: "Haha, oh man. Me and some other guys did that. We were just messing around."
Me: "Oh......"

It was much like the mysterious photo booth man in the movie Amelie. When you discover the truth, it's kind of a let down. The mythos behind it all seems much more exciting than what could very well be just some guys "messing around". But I'm not about to give up this Truth so quickly.

Humanity is the same still. Many people get caught up in the modern day mysticism that tells us "Everything is meaningful!" Others are caught up in the nihilistic way of thinking, "Everything is meaningless!" Perhaps the truth is that everything is meaningful... and meaningless.

Oh hey, I wrote a song with that title...

So, my goal is to make this somewhat of an informal series. It won't be a high priority to get more shoefiti shots, but I will keep my eyes open to them from now on and take a photo to add to the ongoing series. It'll be somewhat of a digital "shoe tree" made of photos.