The Doc Marten boot has been immersed into contorted insertions and then presented to us through Tamara Santibanez’s latest selection of paintings named ‘Love Story’ at the Sang Bleu Contemporary Art and Practice Space. The leather boot is a piece of many people’s wardrobe that transcends notions of contemporary fashion. People from varying class, race and gendered backgrounds embrace this militaristic foot wear as a piece of clothing that endures years of wear and endless culturally radical movements. Clothing is something that immerses itself within our histories as a voyeur of our experiences. Through the material of clothing encasing our bodies it engulfs our emotional histories. Where a lifeless object was once regarded as irrelevant to ourselves, Santibanez has taken the nuances of how foot wear travels with us and has used the classically countercultural boots as characters to play out human relationship dynamics. Some of the paintings suggest the boots to reenact moments of tension where others hint at the idea of intimacy.

Santibanez will be presenting these large scale paintings at the Sang Bleu Contemporary Art and Practice Space with a private view taking place this Thursday the 16th of October from 7-9pm.