HNH 1988: Oz Slippers

2008 (*Remade in 2025, in 8 sizes)
handmade sequined and beaded leather slippers, neodymium magnets, laser-etched plexi box

Original size 5-1/2 (destroyed in a flood, 2021)

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Oz Slippers re-imagines the magical shoes from "The Wizard of Oz".

 

In Salman Rushdie’s "At the Auction of the Ruby Red Slippers", bidders vie for Dorothy’s shoes to possess its magical power - the ability to take one home with a click of the heels. In a world of ever-shifting borders and tenuous identity, the question and crisis posed by Rushdie is of course, “where is home?”

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Wherever home is, one will have slight difficulty getting there in this version, which are playfully embedded with magnets that repel at the necessary point of contact, thus rendering the task somewhat awkward.
 

Each plexi shoebox and pair is given the unique name of a place, appropriated from the fictitious journeys from Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities.

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The bows and inner soles are adorned with the monogram "HNH", standing for Humanitarians Not Heroes, the larger project for which these shoes belong to. For 15 years, the artist produced a new object annually that had the appearance of mass production, looking at how everyday items became rarefied art objects. The project was both shown in museums and sold in boutiques. Each HNH product had its own story to tell - the narrative within the story.

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Size 35: Isaura
Size 36: Euphemia
Size 37: Zobeide
Size 38: Sophronia
Size 39: Leandra
Size 40: Pyrrha
Size 41: Leonia
Size 42: Thekla