Tom Friedman (b. 1965, USA)
Untitled, 2005

This relates to my collection of acrylic brushstrokes remaining on the pallets after painting. I mean, they are also brushstrokes, traces of artist’s purposeful body movements while making art – and made of the same materials and using same technique. They should be art somehow, too. I am just trying to figure out some good ways how… My latest attempt has been Paintbrooches that I like conceptually, but that has lacked in satisfactory formal qualities. So it is an ongoing thinking and – occasionally – doing or testing. So to see that someone has been able to replicate their own sneakers using that kind of material (although one would assume that his painting must have been more purposeful here) is quite inspiring. It also reminds me of other aspect why this is appealing to me – the ambiguous identity of the thing. Is it a painting, is it a sculpture, is it sneakers?…