If heels could kill… you’ll find them in the Brooklyn Museum’s new exhibition, “Killer Heels: The Art of the High-Heeled Shoe,” opening September 10 and running through February 15, 2015.
As it turns out, gravity-defying footwear isn’t a 20th century invention: more than 160 artfully-crafted high heels from the 17th century through the present will be on display here, exploring the provocative and transformative quality of the vertiginous shoe — not to mention its connotations of power, fantasy and identity.
Historical highlights will include a mid-17th century Italian chopines made of silk, leather, and wood; 19th-century cotton and silk embroidered Manchu platform shoes from China; and Ferragamo’s famous multi-colored platform shoe.
Slightly more fantastical specimens will be the stiletto mules of silk, metal, and glass by Roger Vivier for House of Dior (1960) and a wool "heel hat" made by Elsa Schiaparelli in collaboration with Salvador Dalí (1937-38).
Meanwhile, heels designed by architects will include Zaha Hadid's chromed vinyl rubber, kid nappa leather, and fiberglass “Nova” shoe (2013), made in collaboration with United Nude; the “Eamz” pump with an inverted chair leg for a heel by Rem D. Koolhaas (not to be confused with his uncle Rem Koolhaas of OMA); and a black leather platform bootie with an 8-inch heel designed by Rem D. Koolhaas for Lady Gaga (2012).
All told, the shoes will range from conceptual and not-mass-produced, to plausibly wearable, and explore all sculptural, architectural, and artistic possibilities of footwear.
Notwithstanding exhibits that the museum deems to defy categorization, the exhibition will be organized in six thematic sections: Revival and Reinterpretation; Rising in the East; Glamour and Fetish; Architecture; Metamorphosis; and Space Walk.
The exhibition will also feature six specially-commissioned short films by artists Nick Knight, Marilyn Minter, Steven Klein, Ghada Amer and Reza Farkhondeh, Zach Gold, and Rashaad Newsome— that are all inspired by high-heels.
“Killer Heels: The Art of the High-Heeled Shoe” will include other designers like Manolo Blahnik, Chanel, Tom Ford, Pierre Hardy, Iris van Herpen, Nicholas Kirkwood, Christian Louboutin, Alexander McQueen, Prada, and Vivienne Westwood, as well as works from the Bata Shoe Museum.
After its stint at the Brooklyn Museum, it will travel to other venues to be announced.
