Alberto Maggini had been searching for a long time for a pair of heeled shoes that would fit his feet. He visited many second-hand markets in London and Rome, but because his feet are quite large (44 European size) he could not find the right size.  So he decided to create his own collection of shoes with heels. Using the shape of his feet, he molded clay to develop a series of shoes intended for animals and plants that want to wear high heels to increase their seductiveness. Thus were born shoes that play between the “natural” and the “unnatural,” between artifice and exaggeration.  The shoes made by Maggini were presented at Queer Pandèmia, a group exhibition held at Base Milano to investigate the Italian and international Queer art scene.

“Whether our wish be to appear or disappear, captivate or terrify, we feel compelled to transform our appearance by “sloughing our skin,” at least for others. Where does it come from, the skin that is both the subject and object of this metamorphosis?”

Ritual and Seduction, the human body as art. A. Virel; 1980 London 

Camp is a certain mode of aestheticism. It is one way of seeing the world as an aesthetic phenomenon. That way, the way of Camp, is not in terms of beauty, but in terms of the degree of artifice, of stylization.

Notes on “Camp”. S. Sontag

PRESS

Exhibition

Publishing