Page 16 - Famous

MY LE THI

Lives and works in Sydney, Australia
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Beautiful People is one of my on going projects from 1993 to currant time.
It is an installation that uses different worn foot-wears and cast-feet. These
are simple objects to represent and symbolise many things that can be
universal. The different type of foot wears represent different places, time
and race, but they all share one thing in common that is the ground where
these shoes /feet all have to walk on.

The feet here also in the form of shoes as the idea of “everyone has their
own shoes including the one who has no shoes, their own bare feet are
their shoes”. The life cast feet and the painted and altered worn shoes are
all carrying the life experiences of those people who once were in these
shoes and feet. Many of the shoes would had many life stories if they were
worn by many different people.

In Beautiful People have the privilege to meet so many people from different
time, different place and from different walks of life. To me casting the feet
of people is something more than a handshake. If I was allowed to cast
someone’s feet I feel trusted. Not only as an artist but also as a person who
is accepted to be among others and in between others.

I was born in Buon Ma Thuot, Central Highlands in South Vietnam. Shoes
and feet were happened to be one of my early memories. As a very small
child, my mother took me to the market place to sell goods. While sitting in
a basket, I could see nothing else but shoes/feet walking pass in front of me.
Since 1993, I’ve been collecting shoes and casting feet through my travels. In
2002 I went back to my home Central Highlands after 17 years away. During
my visit, I also cast the Central Highlanders’ masks and feet to bring them
back to be exhibited in Australia. My work is about social issues, different
races and cultures. In Beautiful People the shoes/feet evoke memories, life
experiences and feelings through the journeys taken by those who wore
them. They symbolise people’s differences and similarities yet in between
the two is the line that bring them to the same ground. In Beautiful People,
I bring those different walks of life from the streets into the gallery floor to
enable them to walk together.

 4 COLOURS, 2003 ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, 1.5X4.4 M
 BEAUTIFUL PEOPLES, INSTALLATION PROJECT
 NAKED IN PUBLIC, ON GOING PROJECT FROM 1999, PAPER MACHE AND WIRE

16
FAMOUS
CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS