Wish Sandals

“Wish Sandals” consists of 15 pairs of sandals using wishes, rope-like materials, and fabric for straps.  The size of sandals changes gradually; bigger sandals are on the yellow path of the ground and as they step up to the wall, the scale diminishes.  It seems like that the loud big step becomes smaller and smaller by achieving goals little by little and the step becomes very quiet when the wish comes true.  Texts (wishes) from all sandals are shown and hidden through interlaced woven structures.  Straps have different colors and patterns for each indicating the changes in fashion and popular culture through the last decades.  I have seen straw sandals (called “waraji” in Japanese) in shrines and temples in Japan.  Footwear is considered an appropriate offering to welcome gods who have traveled from afar.  They are also worshiped as protectors of the roadway (doshojin) as well as guardian gods of the community. Nowadays, waraji are seldom made by young people’s hands.  So many traditions have been dying in the same way.   I am proud that I could learn sandal weaving from the men in my father’s hometown and apply it in a new way.  My wish sandals are carrying people’s wishes with the everlasting hopes existing between past and future.  People’s wishes change by time.  Sometimes wishes come true and we make another wish.  Sometimes it takes a long journey.  The invisible thread between the time you made a wish and the time a wish comes true is intense and beautiful.  I tried to make a special brightened path using yellow color.