Walk a Mile in My Shoes!

One of my souvenirs from Oman was a pair of  Khussa shoes, something I've always wanted but I wouldn’t want to walk a mile in them! That said they are surprisingly comfortable and remind me of ''A Thousand and One Arabian Nights''. Funnily enough although associated with Persia and Arabia their origins are in India or Pakistan, wonderfully decorated, they make my every day shoes look completely boring! Of course they also bring to mind harems, slaves and Odalisques, a genre in painting that has caused much discussion in the art world over the last few months. Is it acceptable to portray these sexualised images of slavery? Eroticised images of women sold into slavery and prostitution, the question is a tricky one to answer. My take on most of these ''politically correct'' arguments in art is the following ..... did the situation exist? 

Yes. Slavery, harems and oldalisques (who incidentally were first and foremost chambermaids) existed, they are facts. How they were represented in 19th C Orientalism was erotic, idealistic but a reflection of the attitudes and spirit of an era and not a reflection of attitudes today, therefore to remove these images is an attempt to rewrite history and personally not acceptable. As an artist I believe artists have the right to chose their motifs, it’s like freedom of speech. If you remove paintings of slavery, erotica, wars, religion, animals (hunting scenes are detrimental to animals and certainly would be offensive to vegans), sexual discrimination, what exactly will be left in the art galleries or museums? Nothing, they would be nearly empty! 

You cannot hope to please all of the people all of the time and it is not the job of art to pander to every sensibility, that kills all creativity. As a museum goer you have the choice, if you find a certain genre of art offensive then don’t view it but let others decide for themselves. 

My sketches are completely mixed media; finepen, watercolour, water-colour pencils, gouache, white acrylic and coloured pencil. Yes, I thwacked everything in there, which led to several problems, drawing over white acrylic wasn’t too easy. Trying to achieve the texture of the embroidery/leather and gold thread over the netted red fabric was quite tricky but I wanted to portray that extremely textured surface. 

Aren’t they just fabulous! 

In the background I've got some sketches of architectural details seen on holiday or from a visit to the Islamic collection at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. 

Speaking of art being offensive I'm a bit concerned about the Arabic script, it is supposed to say Khussa shoes and I truly hope it does. 

These shoes maybe designed more with lounging around on a diwan while sipping sherbert than walking a mile to the local shops but they certainly work like a magic carpet, they transport me into distant lands.