Independent Projects

EMPREINTES at the Bata Shoe Museum, 2015
Photo: Philip Castleton

Suitable for all ages

Bata Shoe Museum

EMPREINTES

Pascale Peyret - Paris, France

Installation

Commissioned to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Francophonie in Ontario, the installation is a mediation on footprints: those left by our ancestors (inspired by artefacts in the museum collection), those of Samuel de Champlain and the 400-year French presence in Ontario, and the invisible carbon footprint we all leave behind each day. Dozens of carbonized wooden shoe lasts are suspended from the atrium ceiling in clusters evoking the 'hanging rooms' where coal miners hung their daytime clothing in baskets. Each shoe last carries a message written by local children - a wish for the planet, a promise to respect it or a celebration of nature, along with a calculation of their own carbon footprint. The work reveals the passing of time and of human presence on earth both as individuals and communities, and the visible and invisible footprints left behind.

Pascale Peyret is a photographer and sculptor who lives and works in Paris. Her work explores the ambiguity of the connections between man and nature.

57

327 Bloor Street West, 416-979-7799 ext. 228

This project is indoors.