Slide Images

1 - Feet inventory (partial instillation view)
Stone, steel, bronze, glass, earth

2 - Margelot, 1993
Steel, Stone
9 cm x 23 cm x 23 cm
4 in x 9 in x 9 in

3 - Feet No. 110, 2001
Bronze
12 cm x 7 cm x 23.5 cm
4.5 in x 2.75 in x 9.25 in

4 - Feet No. 200, 1996
Glass, Sand
5 cm x 10.2 cm x 23.3 cm
2 in x 4.75 in x 9 in

Feet (1997 - )

“I’m like a man (/woman) who stumbles; my foot strikes something, I look down, and there is exactly what I’m in need of.”

   - James Joyce

The first time that I discovered a stone that resembled a foot I was walking with a friend along a shoreline in Nova Scotia. Within seconds I discovered others. I remember thinking, someone had been here before me.

Thus, started my collection of “foot stones”. In time, I started to pair them – some of stones are cast into bronze or glass, others are bound together with a steel clasp and yet others remained untouched.

These stones stand as markers – they connect me from the present to the past and to the future. I think of my nomadic ancestors, the paths they took …I think of my children and grandchildren, the paths they will take.

Footprints in a trail I do not yet know
Foot upon foot
                        Wondering

The passing of time,
The marking of time
With each footstep something dies,
Something is born

“By pairing or doubling certain forms, Sylvia Safdie created an entire subdirectory of feet that by their material voice, form and placement, evoke a broad range of relationship, as well as affective situations. Questions of identity, proximity, alignment, abandonment, oppression and even irony suggested themselves in a long cohabitation with her inventory."

   - Zanatovska Murray, Irena,“Sylvia Safdie The Inventory of Invention”, pg. 15.