Exquisite Boundaries

Exquisite Boundaries exhibited in 2008 at 271 Collins Street Melbourne located in between Peter Shepherds Shoes and Tiffany’s in one of the most stunning retail spaces in Melbourne this was one of Foote’s most ambitious and large scale artworks to date.

Upon walking into the space the viewers were confronted with a giant 24 meter gold mirror catwalk that looks like it had been suspended but has come crashing down and now balances precariously between the second level and the ground, creating a large sumptuous golden mirror that reflects the building’s stunning architecture.

Viewers were then presented with the seductive sound of clicking high heels panning up and down the space but with a ghostly absence of models or fashion.

 Running along one of the sidewalls were a series of blank gold mirror panels, below each panel were the dates of the exhibition.

Over the two week time frame Foote photographed guests in front of a golden mirror background, from those photos Foote drew over them on the computer to create new silhouettes artwork, creating unique wallpaper/ fabric like patterns, with his trademark hidden imagery concealed within the positive and negative space of the pattern work, the guest, their clothing, bottles of Champagne, jewelery hallmarks, shoes were some of the hidden imagery, whatever he saw during the period of the exhibition went into the expanding time line.

This multi faceted and layered artwork of Footes is saturated with meanings and content, by destroying the stage in which we traditionally use to gauge what is and isn’t fashionable and shifting the gaze back onto ourselves, Foote has placed the viewer into the center of the artwork creating a commentary between growing popularity of fashion blog’s and social networks in which we as the viewers are the informing fashion trends.

Foote’s work also plays with positive and negative fundamentals for example the artwork can be both minimal and maximal at the same time, there are elements of old and new situated in a ornate classic space Foote deliberately angles the mirror to reflect the ceiling, he also takes the classic wallpaper print and entrenches it with contemporary imagery.

These are just some of the many layers Foote likes to embed into his multi layered artworks.