Please buy My Shoes.
Site-172 Catalogue Intake Form
Responsible Staff Member: Sr. Rsr. Violet
Designation: AO#91023
Risk Profile: Minimal
Description: Item is a landscape moving image, roughly 3.2m by 2m, depicting a city by night at street level. Vehicles moving past the point of view leave motion trails, with the lights of the vehicles exhibiting the effect particularly strongly. Humanoid figures appear infrequently, their direction of movement is typically unclear. The features of the figures remain unclear at any apparent distance. All street lights appear as 'star burst' patterns, with paired downward 'tails' that lengthen as the observer blinks. The entire field of view of partially obscured by a persistent filter reminiscent of television static. It is unclear whether or not it is raining.
In combination, the listed effects make it difficult for observers to maintain focus on any individual component element of the image. This creates a somewhat disorienting feeling in the majority of observers.
Image is held within an unadorned frame, baring a small plaque at its base which reads "My Shoes - Allegedly, An Artist".
Primary Anomalous Effect: Prolonged observation of the item leads to an altered state of perception in observers, exhibiting the abnormalities present within the image. This effect is temporary, with effects appearing to correlate with the length of time spent observing the anomaly. Observers report heavy disorientation upon initially experiencing the effect. Repeated viewings of the image seems to extend the subsequent state of perception, but decrease feelings of disorientation. Additionally, repeated exposure has resulted in reported feelings of disconnection from reality and dissociative spells, increasing with frequency of observation.
Analysis: The artist's signature belongs to a suspected member of the AWCY? collective, and bears their characteristic lack of subtlety. While this is most evident in their post-bomb work, it is also applicable to several pre-bomb works that have been retroactively associated with the artist. For example, an unlicensed public installation confiscated by the Foundation in Berlin exhibiting a compulsive effect on witnesses to assert "I am An Artist".1
However, this piece seems to lack the nuance present in previously encountered works by the same artist. AO#91023 appears to be exactly what the shallowest interpretation of the work would suggest, that is: a blunt imposition of the artist's point of view upon the observer. A desire for the observer to understand the world as they see it.
While this is thematically in keeping with their prior works, I suspect a difference in motive due to a similarity in the method of acquisition. While both the untitled pipe bomb and AO#91023 appeared anomalously within Foundation sites— the pipe bomb in Site-19's break room, and AO#91023 in Site-172's intake bay— the location of the pipe bomb seems to have been integral to the messaging of the piece. AO#91023 would have the same meaning here as it would in any of the galleries of Backdoor SoHo.
So why is it here? This would appear to be contradictory to the intended message of AO#91023. One would presume that the piece, focused on an apparent desire to convey the artist's perspective, would be better suited to display anywhere that the public could conceivably view it, rather than in our custody, where it will inevitably be wrapped and vaulted away.
In performing this analysis, I have reached out to contacts in galleries of varying prestige, none of whom reported any history of contact with the artist responsible for AO#91023. In fact, it is notable that they have produced no publicly accessible works since the confiscation of the Berlin installation. While two items may not a pattern make, any extension of this current trend would indicate to me that the artist feels unable to display anywhere else. Whether this is resultant from a lack of connections, ability, or confidence I cannot speculate here, but it would appear that at this point we may be the sole— and captive— audience for the artist's works.
Conclusion: The item can be safely stored in the low-security archives with the artist's other works. It is likely further 'deliveries' from the artist will appear in future, so it may be beneficial to open a Person of Interest file on them, but this is not a priority.