Art: Lenka Clayton explores coupledom through creative shoe-making

I am getting to an age where more and more of my friends are getting married (2013 was the year of the gift list). Getting to know friends as part of a couple is an interesting experience, seeing how their personalities manifest separately and together in this new context. Longtime friend of the site Lenka Clayton has found an innovative way to explore this idea in her new project One Brown Shoe. She asked 100 married couples around the world to make a single brown shoe using materials found in their houses. They were asked to do this in secret and not discuss the project with their significant other. The results came in various shapes and sizes, made from materials as varied as cat food boxes to Cuban cigars.

They were brought together in an exhibition and a beautiful limited-edition boxed catalogue are a fascinating insight into the creative expression of the participants, and both the similarities and differences tell us something about their relationships.
“Each pair of shoes might be seen as a portrait,” Lenka says, “of two individuals, of one couple, and of the difference between the two.”