16. The Red Shoe, by Sophie Calle.
MoMA, New York
The description reads:
"Amelie and I were eleven years old. We had a habit of stealing from department stores
on Thursday afternoons. We did this for one year. When her mother began to suspect,
in order to frighten us, she said that a policeman who had spotted us, came and repor-
ted our activities to her. But because of our age, he was giving us a second chance. We
would now be followed by him, and if we stop stealing, he would forget about the
past. In the following weeks, we spent most of our time wondering who was the policeman
hidden among all the people around us. In our attempts to lose him, we were now
too busy to steal. Our last robbery had been a pair of red shoes too big for us to wear.
Amelie kept the right shoe, and I kept the left."
Yes, that's my reflection, unfortunately, but if I was creating my own version of The Red Shoe, the shoplifted objects being displayed would include books, cigarettes and lollies. |