Evidence of “Shoefiti” – the act of tying a pair of shoes’ laces together and throwing them like a bolas up and around a telephone wire so that they hang down as decoration – is everywhere in Vancouver. More often than not, the ones we see are just the result of a new pair of shoes. But sometimes they’re used as markers. They could advertise the presence of a drug dealer, or a memorial, or a skatespot, or countless other things. You may have even heard tell of entire graduating classes throwing shoes up en masse around their campuses, or construction workers tossing them up to mark a completed project, or of soldiers painting their combat boots yellow and hanging them outside their respective bases whenever they come home from tours of duty, but the point of the “bomb” on the West side of Main between Prior & Union is lost on us. It’s just a few blocks away from our office, but we’ve only just noticed it. All of the shoes are high heels, which makes it – as far as we know – one of a kind in this town. Is it new or old? Is it an expression of memorial for missing women, the late night consequence of a ladies night that got out of control, or a meaningless pile-on? We’ve asked around and found no reference to it on the web, so we have no proper clue. Spill the beans if you know the score…
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Cursed Arts students. You’ve turned my view into a Payless Shoesource.
I noticed this a few days ago. Do they do this shoe thing in other cities or is it a Vancouver thing?
Oh I see, you didn’t even event that term.. sorry, should have googled first 🙂
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe_tossing