Shoefiti Theories Abound in Toronto
Murray Whyte tries to get to the bottom of this shoefiti thing in a column for the Toronto Star and uncovers a plethora of theories on why shoes hang from powerlines:
“It means someone got laid for the first time,” says one young woman, smiling for the camera. “It’s a memory of some kind, that you walked these streets,” offers a hefty, middle-aged man in a thick Bronx drawl. Two young Brits suggest it’s convenient storage. “Apartments in Williamsburg are really small,” one says. A pair of bearded friends offer a spiritual take. “It’s for Jesus, man,” says one, and his friend nods. “Yeah, definitely. For Jesus.”
Marcel Danesi can appreciate the natural human impulse to crave meaning from a void. “You have an aesthetic response, then we look for meaning,” says Danesi, a University of Toronto semiotician who wrote Of Cigarettes, High Heels, and Other Interesting Things : An Introduction to Semiotics. “Both of these are important to humanity.”
For Danesi, shoefiti fits neatly in a long line of anonymous self-declaration. “`Kilroy was here’ – it’s the same impulse,” says Danesi, referring to a mysterious popular slogan found etched on walls all over North America in the ’50s and ’60s. “Leave your mark.
May 7th, 2007 at 8:02 am
Shoefiti is an interesting subject as on our way up to the east shore of Lake Simcoe just north of Port Bolster on County rd 23 there is a tree that has dozens and dozens of old shoes and sneakers nailed or tossed over its branches. We have wondered for a couple of years who started this and why? Quite frankly as of this past weekend there are so many that the tree and area is starting to look like a garbage dump instead of an interesting site.
This phenomenon more then likely began with a bully throwing some hapless kids gym shoes over a wire.