Artist Anthony Lane will be embarking on a walkabout in the city while talking about his most recent work, the “Lost Souls” project.
It comprises an installation and a photographic record of washed-up shoes collected from the shores of a Greek island. This is to highlight the urgency of the Syrian crisis.
Lane has collected more than 300 shoes over a period of two years.
Each belonged to a human being, perhaps a child, perhaps someone who once owned their own business, perhaps a pregnant woman.
“Lost Souls” visually and symbolically portrays the grim reality of those victims who lost more than their shoes, but their homes and often their lives. These tragic traces of the footwear of people lost in a political storm are markers of the individual cost of a civil war.
This project exists because Lane says instead of turning away from the evidence that kept washing up on the Skopelos doorstep, he saw an opportunity to raise awareness of those who were victims of a global crisis.
The delicate process has involved curator Clare Patrick, who photographed the shoes, capturing them as portraitures together with an installation that has taken residence at Eclectica Contemporary in Cape Town.
The exhibition at Eclectica Contemporary, 69 Burg Street, runs until October 28. The walkabout takes place on Saturday at 11am from the Eclectica gallery.