TAT Contemporary Art Gallery
Van Gogh Picture from: www.vggallery.com
Crocs
Van Gogh’s 21st century clogs
When looking at a paraphrase, one can’t help but contemplate the reasons and purposes…Paraphrasing an already existing image harkens back to old times, it recalls an earlier idea, concept or opinion, it reflects on ever recurring issues and topics. On the other hand, at the same time, it casts light upon the ever-changing nature of things, relations, circumstances and contexts, otherwise, there would be no place for alterations.Van Gogh’s well known and most popular painting was already a paraphrase of or, at least, a reference to Millet’s still lives on well-established attributes of peasant life. In the old picture, the familiar leather clogs remind the viewer of the hard and indigent life of the poor. It is a very clear statement right there on the canvas: a stale pair of old scuffed footwear in the corner of a room can represent the simple and modest life of so many!
Or is this the case? As Heidegger and Schapiro already disputed over the meanings and intents of Van Gogh’s other – and similar – painting A Pair of Shoes from 1886, one cannot help but be pondering the implications of this particular artwork as well. It may be that the owner of those clogs is the artist himself and so may Tornyi be the owner of their equal from the 21st century…And what is the message of this young pair of shoes? Evidently, the striking contrast between the two is shocking: we have replaced the tried and tested natural leather with the not in the least natural plastic. Today, only the rich can afford such luxuries as genuine leather shoes, the rest is left with everlasting vividly colored plastic clogs. While the pair in Van Gogh’s painting is so poetic and even moving, these eye-hitting blue shoes seem absolutely workaday, they are such a commonplace. Tornyi’s image is tragic, ironical and comical at the same time. One can only wonder whether the old Dutch painter’s clogs were just as trivial in their own time as those of the well-known brand now. Nonetheless, the relics of Van Gogh’s painting must certainly have been and still are much more cherished than their modern version and yet, ironically, the latter will go down to posterity and will remain until the end of time in its bright blue plastic undistroyability.
Anna Voelgyi
Gergö Tornyi. Crocs. 2012 | Van Gogh. A Pair of Leather Clogs. 1888