Portfolios > SERIES 1: RITUALS AND RELIQUARIES

High button shoes stopped being produced in 1926. The shoes were closed with loops on one side and small buttons on the other side. Hooks were implements used to pull the hook over the button to close the high-top shoes. The hooks were very common and came in various sizes. The most common hooks had advertising on them for shoe stores. I bought these because they are so minimal and elegant. Their pulling function became the inspiration for my design, I used two separate supports bound together with the button hooks pulling against one another.

Steel vintage button hooks; flax string; astrological drawings; basswood sheet and strips; acrylic paint on museum archival hardboard and wood support.

Collection of Mark Wight

Reliquary for Button Hooks
Rituals and Reliquaries: Shoe Button Hooks
mixed on archival support
12 1/16" x 24 1/4" x 2 3/4" d.