Monday 3 September 2007

An Art Installation Entitled Socks

Alright, this is a bit daft but it is my second creation in the style of Tracy Emin (the Brit Artist) where anything appears to acceptable as long as it is backed up by a bit of pseudo-intellectual waffle.

All of facets of life in this house is contained in this basket and embodied in these socks. Each sock has a history and a tale to tell.

At the moment the socks' activity is severely curtailed or imprisoned even by the bars of the washing basket surrounding them. Soon, however, they will be back on their feet and rejoining society and the outside world. Many of the socks have been tidily bunched together, but there are a few maverick single socks.

From clockwise tweedy walking socks, trailed up many a hillside and filled many a stout boot. New school socks for the new term, still pristine white. Mark's unexpectedly outrageous dressing style which occasionally surfaces as illustrated in his seventies style pop socks which he bought himself. A touch of the Quentin Crisp. Grey socks which were acceptable to Jack when he was younger, but now, as he enters his teenage years, are not as they have holes in and show him up. Tie dye blue hippy socks. A maverick single birthday sock, doesn't really matter that there is only one as you can only reasonably wear birthday socks once a year anyway. 3D socks (little tortoise's nose sticks out) which were bought as a novelty stocking filler, which are too small but which I like and haven't the heart to throw away, so long lived tortoises these, in hibernation. A few Tweeny (the age between girlhood and teenagerhood) girly socks. Sad little raggedy grey Orphan Annie sock in the corner. Your basic black socks, a staple of the wardrobe, like a little black dress. Simpsons socks, we all love the Simpsons in this house, and two pairs of football socks, black for Jack and white for Eleanor.

Some of these socks even have a theatrical side as you can put them over your hand, and they make a basic glove puppet, which has happened on occasions, so all of life's rich tapestry is contained in this one washing basket.

4 comments:

lebanesa said...

Nice one! Liked the artistic arrangement of the socks - tidy and neat, and so many actually in pairs.
I'm full of admiration.
I asked my daughter if she had everything ready for going back to school and the reply was a sort of indistinct groany sound. So that's okay then!
I think she's gone to bed ready to get up bright and early and walk the dog before getting to school early.... LOL ;-)

Irene said...

I always had so many disappearing socks when my kids were younger. I think the dryer ate them. We had a lot of lonely socks. Now that I don't have a dryer, I very rarely lose a sock, so the theory holds true. I liked this post a lot, as it brought back good memories of all those school days and getting the kids up on time.

Bobbie said...

I've sorted a lot of socks, both clean and dirty, in my life and never thought much about it. But I can see what you see in these humble socks and loved reading this story. I'd love to sort my kids socks again and see the story in them. Alas, they are way grown with kids and grand-kids of their own.

Debi said...

Tracy Emin has nothing on you!

"Maverick socks"...you make me laugh, you do.

P.S. Sorry I'm behind in my blog reading and commenting. I do look forward to catching up with your posts. There is no one like you.