River Irwell Boots

Linda Izan

Slip-cast ceramics with on-glaze and enamels floating shoe sculpture, ankle boot shaped fish with fins, 2022.

Izan: ‘I was born and brought up in the Manchester-Salford border in between the Strangeways and River Irwell area. The River Irwell sweeps through both cities and has been much abused by industry and the total lack of care. My childhood memories were of an oil slick on the water carrying the detritus of human indifference. In this body of work, I hope for cleaner waters and the restocking of the ecosystem.’ The boot shaped fish are a nod to the confusion and adaptation that wild life has to cope with: ‘Are we fish or are we old boots, what have we morphed into?’

© Linda Izan


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