UQ Psychology student Melissa Spearritt’s winning entry in the 2009 Diversity Week Design Competition highlights the different cultures of the world and draws inspiration from the film clip for the famous Aussie song What’s My Scene.
The design competition, announced tonight, Thursday, May 28, as part of the Vice-Chancellor’s Equity and Diversity Awards, celebrates the artistic skills of UQ staff and students.
Keeping to the competition’s guidelines of basing the entry on the 2009 UQ Diversity Week theme In Others’ Shoes, Ms Spearritt’s artwork represents four different cultures including the wooden clogs of Holland, shoes from the Masai Tribe of Kenya, Japanese Geta shoes and lastly those of Greek soldiers or guards.
She said the Hoodoo Guru’s popular film clip, where subjects changed their clothes, displaying new characters or countries of origin, inspired her to create an image where people could step into different shoes and morph into that culture.
“The shoes are presented to Westerners as ‘foot shoes’ so that anyone who wants to experience a selected culture can easily put their feet into the shoes of others and experience that culture,” Ms Spearritt said.
“For example, trying on the pair of Geta’s will allow an individual to experience the culture of a Geisha.”
Ms Spearritt’s original idea for the piece was to use the notion of a shoe shop.
“Everyone else thought I was getting a bit obsessed with shoes,” she said.
“It’s very unusual for me to be satisfied with my artwork. Surprisingly, I was satisfied with this piece.
“I’m a perfectionist when it comes to art. Since I was little it has always been a hobby of mine."
“I’ve finally had one of my artworks recognised by other people.”
Meanwhile, Veterinary Science student Jacqueline Hewitt’s inspired pop art piece received the competition’s Highly Commended award.
Ms Hewitt’s use of the pop art aesthetic prompted her to sketch shoes from various generations, genders and cultures with the aim of instilling the shoes with different personalities and aspirations.
“I was originally brainstorming around the idea of shoes and I started sketching and as I was sketching the shoes, I thought that it would be neat to do a playful, warholesque design and then I had the idea to combine the shoes to create a world map,” she said.
“I scanned free hand sketches of different shoes and manipulated them with adobe Photoshop, paint and other design software to give them different effects.”
Media: Eliza Plant at UQ Communications (07 3365 2619)
