One size fits all art; for a shoe that didn’t fit the crime. The release of Iraqi reporter Muntazar al-Zaidi last week for hurling his size 10 shoes at former President Bush was the closing act in an aggressive display of political footwear passion that began with Soviet premier Nikita Kruschev banging, brandishing and threatening with his shoe,( depending on the witness) on the podium at the United Nations in 1960.
While the Soviet act was not translated into an art work, the experience of Al-Zaidi was memorialized in illegal modern urban art: A monument was erected only to be removed by government authorities and allegedly destroyed a day after the dedication ceremony.” Statue of Glory and Generosity” was Created by Iraqi sculptor Laith al-Amiri at a cost of $5,000 and took two weeks to complete. It bore the inscription, ”Muntazar: fasting until the sword breaks its fast with blood; silent until our mouths speak the truth”.
Statue of Glory and Generosity, Laith al-Amiri
The statue weighs 1-1 1/2 tonnes and an impressive eight feet long and 10 feet high. Constructed of fiberglass with a bronze coating with plastic shrubs filling the shoe.
” Today, most political art lacks relevence. Its become a forum for culture jamming remixes from over educated 1 st Worlders who think they know what’s best for folks on the other side of things. But the above, a monument by Laith al-Amiri to still imprisoned Iraqi journalist and shoe sniper Muntadhir al-Zaidi is the real deal. Built in a fortnight with the assistance of war orphans (it’s at the site of an orphanage), it oozes casual reality and the simplicity of meaningful action. ”
In retrospect, al-Zaidi and the monument recall the nursery rhyme ” There Was An Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe”
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,
She had so many children she didn’t know what to do!
So she gave them some broth without any bread,
And she whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed!
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Joseph Martin Kronheim, 1875
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