Shoe Trees

[snakehips]

What is it that makes some people want to throw their old shoes up in to trees.
I was out earlier this evening just after dark and as I passed a skateboard and stunt cycling park I noticed three trees with old trainers hanging in them. One tree must have had about 50 pairs hanging in it. Unfortunately my photos of that tree did not come out at all well. The best I could do was the shot below.
Does anybody understand this cultural phenomenon ?

 

[brokenbetty]

I once borrowed a book from the library of work by a black American artist, and he did a series about shoes hanging on telephone wires. He said shoes hanging over the wire was a ghetto thing - that's what a lot of his work was about. This would have been an 80s piece, maybe 70s.

Wish I could remember who it was, he did some really good stuff. The work has stayed with me but the name has gone.

Liz

 

[brokenbetty]

Oh wow!

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/set/shoetrees.html

 

[ianrauk]

Here's some pics of the Middlegate, Nevada, shoe tree I took in September. And yes it stank....

 

[slowmotion]

I think that ianrauk has the answer....

Here's some pics of the Middlegate, Nevada, shoe tree I took in September. And yes it stank....

We have all noticed "trainer windowsills". Perhaps it is the case that when the windowsills are still too close to the owner of their appallingly smelly footwear, they realise that a greater distance is required. Fellow sufferers follow suit.

What say, fellows?

 

[urbanfatboy]

i heard something about them startin 'in the ghetto' where they were thrown over power/ telephone lines in remembrance of folks killed in gang violence.

 

[thomas]

Anyone seen the film sex drive (it's not a porno!)...that has a 'shoe tree'.

 

[Mr Pig]

There's a telephone wire just around the corner from Callander Park in Falkirk that's a had a pair of trainers hanging from it for months. They're hanging right over the road, I'm surprised no one has taken them down. I don't know why but I must admit I like them.

 

[blazed]

I dont live in the slums so i dont see things like shoes hanging from telephone wires.

 

[TheDoctor]

Anyone seen the film sex drive (it's not a porno!)...that has a 'shoe tree'.

I did see that, a while ago. Very funny film - saw it with a couple of ex-work mates. Did that come out right? Mates who I worked with a couple of jobs back.
Very good shoe tree, and some way cool Amish dudes...

 

[bauldbairn]

There's a telephone wire just around the corner from Callander Park in Falkirk that's a had a pair of trainers hanging from it for months. They're hanging right over the road, I'm surprised no one has taken them down. I don't know why but I must admit I like them.

"Ghetto Art" in Falkirk - I'll have to check it out tomorrow.

 

[Mr Pig]

"Ghetto Art" in Falkirk - I'll have to check it out tomorrow.

It's on Kemper Avenue, close to the Glen Brae end. I havn't been in Falkirk for a couple of weeks so let me know if they're still there :0)

 

[Cubist]

I dont live in the slums so i dont see things like shoes hanging from telephone wires.

Genesis 38: 9-10

 

[Arch]

What is it that makes some people want to throw their old shoes up in to trees.
I was out earlier this evening just after dark and as I passed a skateboard and stunt cycling park I noticed three trees with old trainers hanging in them. One tree must have had about 50 pairs hanging in it. Unfortunately my photos of that tree did not come out at all well. The best I could do was the shot below.
Does anybody understand this cultural phenomenon ?

I like that photo - the contrast of the sillouette against the nice sky, the single pair of shoes picked out by the flash...

I notice an old bike tyre too... I wonder if it's like broken windows - once a tree has one bit of junk in it, it attracts others...

 

[Alan Frame]

Interesting stuff.

The days of seeing cassette tape draped over trees by the roadside have long gone now, maybe this is the modern equivalent.