k is for khaki: João Penalva

João Penalva
Still from Mister
1999

I don't especially like this piece. It just is. Or was.

"The Portuguese artist João Penalva, who lives in London and is having his first U.S. gallery show at Max Protetch in Chelsea, is also absorbed in tales -- not high ancient myths but rather the humble but timeless folk tale. The exhibition features a pair of projections, the first housed in a khaki canvas tent surrounded by multicolored light bulbs on the floor, as if from a traveling sideshow. A nearby signboard boasts that we are privileged to hear "Mister, the Talking Shoe," and the video offers just that -- a spotlighted wingtip whose toe is worked up and down like a sock puppet by the unseen artist. For almost 30 minutes, the shoe tells "a modern-day sorrows of Job," though in an Irish accent that is all but incomprehensible. The work was a star of the 2002 Sydney Biennale."