16.02 - 01.03.2012
12 noon - 6pm Monday - Saturday (closed Sunday)
In My Shoes
by Robert Ladislas Derr

In My Shoes puts me at the centre of an existential dilemma of wearing community members’ shoes associated with a memorable moment. With the video cameras, I return to the location of the memory to film my gait in the shoes as I recite the account, blurring the boundary between the other and me. The city is the stage for this performance. The old adage, “walk a mile in my shoes,” compels me to embark on this dilemma, metaphorically experiencing a different perspective, which in turn, meets the installation viewers with an awry expatiation of memories. Projected onto the ground, the resulting video of the shoes and recited memories reverberates the original performance. 

(Dublin, Ireland) If you encounter a person with an unusual apparatus of video cameras in gait in shoes too small, too big, or maybe almost perfect, but with the shoes clearly being filmed, it is just  Robert Ladislas Derr from the United States performing In My Shoes. Interested in having him film your shoes that have a memorable Dublin moment? Then drop your shoes off at the Centre for Creative Practices between February 1 to 7, 2012.

Be it high heels, boots, sandals, if the shoes have a particular story attributed to Dublin, Derr would enjoy performing in the shoes. Everyone is welcome to contribute, young or old, to assist with his unique existential quest of experiencing what is like to walk in your shoes.

Invited by the city of Urbana, Illinois (United States) last summer to do these In My Shoes performances, people’s memories took Derr to the baseball field in a pair of black cleats for a winning game, news coverage of a trial at the courthouse in wing tips, and sculpture park for an inspired stroll in sneakers to name just a few.

Opening February 16, 6 pm at the Centre for Creative Practices, you will get to view the video of the shoes with the memories recited.
Art scholar Dr. William J. Nieberding writes of the In My Shoes video installation, “The purposeful re-orientation of the projected image from the traditional location of the theatre screen to the floor of the art gallery intensifies this sense of personal choice and involvement. The viewer is not a passive receptor of the moving images sitting anonymously in a theatre seat. Instead, She becomes an active agent in the process of engaging with the Other and re-creating the memory.

Biography:

Robert Ladislas Derr uses performance, video, photography, and installation as he puts himself literally in the center of a barrage of questions about life and making art. He has exhibited and performed worldwide at such venues as the Schirn Kunsthalle (Frankfurt, Germany), LIVE Performance Art Biennale (Vancouver, BC, Canada), Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus, OH), Athens Video Art Festival (Athens, Greece), Photographic Resource Center (Boston, MA), American Academy in Rome (Rome, Italy), Independent Museum of Contemporary Art (Limassol, Cyprus), Irish Film Institute (Dublin, Ireland), Art Interactive (Cambridge, MA), DiVA Festival (New York, NY), and Jack the Pelican Presents (Brooklyn, NY). Awards for his work include the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Ohio Arts Council, among others. Derr has an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, and he is an associate professor of art at The Ohio State University. 

In Your Shoes - Your Dublin Memory

Do a pair of shoes hold a special memory of a time or place in Dublin? In February Robert Derr will be presenting an exhibtion of works based on these memories.

If you would like to donate or lend a pair of shoes you can donate or drop-off your shoes upto 7 February at the Centre for Creative Practices.

We will provide you with a memory tag where you can fill out information on the location of your Dublin memory and ask you to descibe the moment you felt whilst wearing the shoes.

16.02.2012
6pm
Artitsts Talk

Robert Ladislas Derr: Performance, Video, Photography, and installation
In My Shoes: Dublin, Ireland

Artists Talk

Robert Derr will also give a talk about his work on February 16 at 6pm, and the exhibition runs to March 2, 2012. The Centre for Creative Practices is located at 15 Pembroke Street Lower.

Robert Ladislas Derr uses various modes of making that centres on a barrage of questions about life and art. He has exhibited and performed worldwide at such venues as the Schirn Kunsthalle (Frankfurt, Germany), LIVE Performance Art Biennale (Vancouver, BC, Canada), Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus, OH), Athens Video Art Festival (Athens, Greece), Photographic Resource Center (Boston, MA), American Academy in Rome (Rome, Italy), Independent Museum of Contemporary Art (Limassol, Cyprus), Irish Film Institute (Dublin, Ireland), Art Interactive (Cambridge, MA), DiVA Festival (New York, NY), and Jack the Pelican Presents (Brooklyn, NY). Derr has an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, and he is an associate professor of art at The Ohio State University.