FOOTSTEPS: A Global Response 

My name is Stella Meades. I am an artist living in Parksville, British Columbia, Canada.  In 1996 I completed footnote,an installation of 1001 hand-built, child-sized ceramic shoes. The shoes were unglazed, smoke-blackened, and altered to suggest some of the ways in which children affected by war have suffered.  Based on 1995 UNICEF statistics, each shoe represented 6000 children affected by war in the previous 10 years.   footnote was designed to be a visual illustration of numbers and facts that are difficult to comprehend intellectually (for more on footnote see click on Aceart).

footnote was exhibited in Winnipeg in 1996 and in Toronto in 1997 and the shoes then stored away.  In 2006, in the present world climate of war, my thoughts turned to questions of what war-affected children might need in order to begin to heal.  At this time I had close to 800 shoes.  Rather than make this a solitary project, I decided to invite other people to help. I sent interested people a shoe and asked them to make something to hold, cover, or contain it that would symbolize an alleviation of the loss or damage the shoe represented.

 By August 2007 all the shoes were gone.

The work has now been exhibited in Nanaimo and Victoria BC., and Winnipeg, MB. with many  shoes being claimed by donors. Donation's will go to various projects helping children affected by war. For information about this see News

Information on where the shows are can be seen on  Shows for Shoes.  Further details about the shows is posted on News. 

To view the returned shoes click on Gallery (in left hand column).