Trainer Monument (Prototype)
ENDS on 30 May 2009
Artwork by Can Altay. Bring YOUR OLD TRAINEES up to Static Gallery and hurl them onto the Trainer Monument and watch this public art piece grow……….
The Trainer Monument (Prototype) brings together sports shoe enthusiasts in a shoe flinging frenzy to make the first prototype for a different kind of public art, one that takes shape by the people’s contributions of throwing their trainers over wires.
This monument will be an ever-growing layer over the streetscape of Liverpool, paying homage to fans travelling abroad and open to all trainer enthusiasts and trainerspotters. (Can Altay April 2009)
In August 2008, Can Altay was invited to a 3 week residency at Static Gallery in order to carry out research for the publication URBAN MAKERS (edited by Emanuele Guidi). During this visit, Altay was given a copy of Dave Hewitsons cult classic ‘The Liverpool boys are in town’. As a result, in his subsequent contribution to URBAN MAKERS, Altay proposed the artwork ‘Trainer Monument’ which pays homage to the city of Liverpool being the birth place of the trainer inspired youth culture now known as ‘casuals’.
Dave Hewitson and Paul Sullivan (Static Gallery) have teamed up with Can Altay to produce the prototype and engage a Liverpool public whose obsession with trainees [training shoes] goes back over 30 years. A large scale Trainer Monument is planned for late 2009.
UNIT 4 begins 20 May 2009