Next Monday, at the Simms Museum in Cleveland, artist/repetitor Cala Moline will open the interactive exhibit FITS – featuring 1800 shoehorns that once belonged to noteworthy people.
“It took us over nine years to get them all together,” says Moline, “including six months just to get 22 of Eddie Albert’s.” The “Green Acres” actor owned a total of 436, she says.
The idea is for people to be able to take off their shoes, then put them back on using the same shoehorns once used by Bette Davis, John Barrymore, or Shecky Green. “You’ll be experiencing exactly what these well known people experienced, feeling exactly how they felt when they put on their own shoes.”
Since 2010, when Portugese curator Alsim Planns was appointed the Simms’ director, there has been a major shift toward participatory exhibits – 2011s Variétés, for instance, which invited patrons to sort ketchup packs into categories, and 2020’s Courir! where trained squirrels chased people around a circular track
“It’s no longer just about staring at a Picasso and asking your friend if it speaks to them,” says Moline. Four years ago, incidentally, the Simms turned down her proposal to purchase 22 of the lesser known Picasso works – including Étude en bleu de comptable fiscaliste (Study in Blue of Tax Accountant) – and then allow patrons to draw on them with magic markers.
“They claimed it was the $234 million cost,” says Moline.
The FITS opening night reception is expected to draw over 600 – including Tamara Clorey, of Nashville, who will be showing her emerald-encrusted Elvis Presley shoehorn, for which she paid$3.7 million and claims is the worlds’ third most valuable.
