This shoe was completed back in November 2007. This is one of my personal favorite shoes I have done to date. I never officialy released this project. This shoe is 1 of 4 based on the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse. I collaborated with Identity Footwear & Apparel(www.ifanh.com)for this project. I took what each horseman represents & related it to issues that are relevant in todays society. For the 1st shoe of the 4, I chosed the horseman that represented death. I chose AIDS/HIV, to represent death. This shoe tells the story about AIDS in the early 1980's and what it has grown into today. At the bottom, I explain what the imagery on the shoes represent.
Enjoy, beginning to end:
The right shoe: AIDS THEN
- The silhouette of the 5 men represent the 1st known AIDS case in the US. On June 5, 1981, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) published a report about the
occurrence, without identifiable cause, of a rare lung infection called Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia(PCP)in five men in Los Angeles. This report is sometimes
referred to as the "beginning" of AIDS, but it might be more accurate to describe it as the beginning of the general awareness of AIDS in the USA.
-The painting of President Ronald Reagan saying "1985" represents the year he publicly mentioned AIDS for the first time.
- The "1982" represents the year the disease was labed as "AIDS" (July 27, 1982).
The left shoe: AIDS NOW
- I chose the continent of Africa to represent the pandemic that AIDS has had over the world. As of the end of 2004, an estimated 25.4 million people were
living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, representing almost two thirds (64%) of the global total of people living with HIV/AIDS.
-I painted the baby w/ the skull for a head to representing the babies that are born w/ this disease.
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