Remember the shoeboxes you had under the bed? Inside there could be mom’s empty little cosmetic boxes, cartoon stickers or a muddy-faced doll. Just about everyone had one shoebox at least, to hide all the secrets that others were not allowed to see.
So if you were given a shoebox what would you put in? Forty artists answered this question: each one replicated a room from his or her childhood memory or an imagined one to express their state-of-being at that time. You’d be surprised to look into their childhood, either painful or exciting.
There is English artist Grayson Perry’s bedroom, where he imagined all his boyhood dramas but also discovered himself being a transvestite, trying on his mother and sister’s dresses. Writer Dawn Howley, arouses sympathy by sharing her experience of domestic violence at home.
These works of art are accompanied by another collection of “Shoebox living through the eyes of a child”, made by 125 children between the ages of eight and ten. They are supported by Kid’s Company, an organization founded 14 years ago, helping 13,500 vulnerable children and young people in Britain.
It would take a heart of stone to resist " the wall of shoebox art” where little thoughts are glued in with tissues, wine corks and cotton balls to simulate their houses, narrating trivial anecdotes like fighting over the remote control watching CBBC. Yet surprisingly, one in six children who recreated the houses tells a painful or fearful experience such as being threatened by elder siblings or living cautiously in a dangerous neighborhood.
Where to see and help
The exhibition takes place both online and in real life galleries. Haunch Venison at six Burlington Gardens, and later Saatchi Gallery takes over at 98 Sloane Street for another six weeks. The show includes all of the artists’ designer works with some children’s art and interestingly, there’s a small dark room showing night houses, next to where short videos showing kids’ stories are being told.
Concerned? Now you have a chance to help and win a designed shoebox simply by filling out a bidding form. Kid’s Company and the Bryan Adams Foundation are founding this Shoebox Art collection for vulnerable children. All the proceeds from the online silent auction will go to children supported by Kids Company.
Nearest tube: Knightsbridge or Sloane square Underground
Have your say - info@offbeatlondon.co.uk
"Our dreams are made of real things, like a shoebox full of photographs."Jack Johnson, Better Together.
by Junjie Dou
published on: 13 April, 2010
Life in a Shoebox
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