St Bride’s Church: Hammer In Hand Studios Presents ‘Put Your Feet In My Shoes’

Hammer In Hand Studios Presents
‘Put Your Feet In My Shoes’
by Michelle Wren and Kazem Ashourzadeh

New video artwork opening at St Brides Church for Independents Biennial this month offers a refreshing perspective on migration and those journeying to Europe to seek refuge

From Monday 4th August to Saturday 30th August, this new multimedia video artwork by Michelle Wren and Kazem Ashourzadeh will be on display at St Bride’s Church, Percy Street, Liverpool, L8 7LT as part of The Liverpool Biennial Independents Programme.

Put Your Feet in My Shoes is an animated film that follows protagonist Marco Polo as he undertakes the perilous journey to Europe and fights to maintain his optimism and identity.

Combining animation and live action, this colourful, funny and painfully honest film will sweep you off your feet, across the world and into the author’s shoes.

Drawing from parts of his own journey to Europe and narrating the piece under the guise of heroic traveller Marco-Polo, Kazem Ashourzadeh reframes his experience – resisting the role of victim. Marco Polo travelled the world without a passport and was considered a heroic adventurer, why aren’t the people that take this journey seen in the same way?

The film is projection mapped onto an inflatable dingy, suspended in the church and exhibited alongside scraps of wrecked dinghy washed up on beaches in Greece, this vibrant film expresses the deadly impact European migration policy is having on people seeking refuge and brings the reality of this crisis home to Liverpool.

Key Details
Address: St Bride’s Church, Percy Street, Liverpool, L8 7LT
Entry: Free
Private View: Friday 1st August 6pm – 9pm
Open: Mondays 10am – 4pm | Wednesdays 10am – 9pm | Saturdays 10am – 4pm

Created during a four month residency at FACT Liverpool’s Studio Lab and an on location shoot on the Greek Island of Chios; the first island Kazem arrived at in Europe. The artists piece together fragments of memories using real photographs of Kazem’s journey and by scanning Google Streetview. Blending traditional analogue techniques with digital technologies that include live video, green screen digital and stop motion animation, set building and prop making; with an atmospheric soundscape created by Rob Wingfield.

“This is a raw and defiant account of the brutality that people face when they are forced to take this migration route to Europe, not an explanation or apology for why people come” said Michelle Wren

The work was inspired by Kazem’s old battered shoes that he walked to Europe in and the photos of his journey, which feature Kazem – well dressed and presentable – passing for a tourist, rather than expressing the reality of his dangerous mission. Running for 13 minutes, the film is presented on a loop, with audiences experiencing the waves of battle between Marco Polo’s optimism and the position and character imposed on him by Europe.

The dinghy the artwork is projected into is whole and representative of the ones in which people are forced to cross the Mediterranean sea in, but displayed alongside the artwork are real pieces of dingy found washed up on Greek Island Mithilini. Donated by Lesvos Solidarity. These artefacts bring home the reality of the unseaworthy vessels and dangerous situations that people seeking refuge in Europe face.

This urgent work challenges the growing anti-migrant sentiment across Europe that sparked race riots across the UK in 2024 and riots outside a hotel housing people seeking asylum in Liverpool in 2023. The piece draws on inspiration from the Zine ‘My Dream Is A World Without Hatred’  that the artists co-produced with a group of people in Liverpool who are seeking asylum, following the Race Riots in the summer of 2024.

As well as being a feature of the Independents Biennial programme this summer, Put Your Feet in My Shoes will be screened in community spaces in areas of Liverpool where people seeking asylum have experienced racism.

Alongside the work, the artists are hosting an event at The Museum of Liverpool:

Saturday 16th August, 1pm – 4pm | Screening and Talk | Museum of Liverpool
Solidarity beyond defence and the language of immigration
Screening of Put Your Feet In My Shoes and Exhibition of Zine ‘My Dream is a World Without Hatred’ followed by artist talk and public workshop hosted by the artists and Mr Boy Cookery School CIC.

Book Free Event Tickets:
https://book.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/museumofliverpool/events/0197c0c4-fff9-8c6a-b7bf-bbdf4362f1f9