In the following BBC clip, lifted from today’s ephemera, the sculptor and artistic luminary Antony Gormley shares his wisdom on matters ecological. “Dispense with your socks,” says he. “This is a time of global warming. Through our feet we can begin to feel it.” This is no doubt because “our feet connect with our brains” and “engage with time.” And what’s more, “through our feet we can begin to be one people, standing through gravity on one Earth.” Yes, standing through gravity, united in our socklessness. Go barefoot for Gaia, people. It’s “an act of solidarity.”
Careful, dear readers. That’s the white heat of insight. It burns mortal flesh.
(h/t, Simen Thoresen.)
Holy crap. I think watching that made me a little bit stupid.
We use our feet to engage with time? Thank you BBC. Please may I pay for more?
I almost expected him to finish up with “You’re my best mate, did I ever tell you that? .. no, no, you are! Really…what?..what was I saying?”
Once again the artistic community shows us the way.
Well Bernard Bresslaw said it better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkXWd3CaM0Q
“You need feet to stand up straight.” Ah, the classics.
I’m an artist, and I just want to apologize on behalf of all of us.
Perhaps the worst thing is that any time some idiot like this spews garbage “in the name of Gaia”, the credulous journalists lap it right up and regurgitate it as the gospel truth.
I’d like to see somebody suggest doing away with 90% of the EU (especially the Parliament and its monthly trips to Strasbourg) on the grounds that it’s carbon-wasteful, and watch the journalists’ pointy little heads explode.
It’s akin to when they indulge kids on Newsround by reading out their views as if they’re worth a fuck — but this is a grown man.
The artists will lead the way… Art versus Homeless?
Well, even the homeless will be able to enjoy art. The artists choose ART!
Who’s Antony Gormley and why is he being interviewed?
AC1,
Antony Gormley (OBE):
http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=1192&page=1
He makes crap sculpture, writes for the Guardian and he won the Turner Prize. (He said winning it was “like being a Holocaust survivor”.)
“He said winning it was ‘like being a Holocaust survivor’.”
A moral giant, clearly.
One of the most cost-effective means to improve public health is putting shoes on the poor. Some parasitic diseases such as hookworm are caught through eggs that embed in the skin, hatch, reach the bloodstream, and then take up residence in their organ of choice – usually the intestine. Hookworm used to be endemic amomngst the poor in the American southern states – caught through the soles of the bare feet. The pallor and lisltlessness of the infected poor rural people was attributed to lack of character.
I can assure readers that if Gateshead council’s favourite artist was to walk around Gateshead in bare feet today, the last thing he’d be feeling was warming.
Hey, moron. it SNOWS here. Feel that.
I think he confused Gaia and gaaaaaa…(drool)
Going barefoot through a Wisconsin winter is not a good idea, even if you’re an award winning artist. Gaia can be a unforgiving mother in January.
Except that there will be no more “winters”, thanks to Anthropormorphic Globular Worming.
Or something. The polar bears would know…
:^P
Well, I am going to have to chime in here and say “Wonderful.” Going barefoot is a great way to expand our sensory capacities, and bare feet are far more resilient than those who live their lives in shoes might imagine.
I usually go for a barefoot walk at least 3-4 times a week, and I am always pleasantly amazed by the contrast in surfaces, temperatures, moisture, etc. There are few things that feel as good as squishing through the mud with curious toes!
Hopefully those of you so quick to criticize this man will experiment with walking barefoot. Try grass and sand first, then experiment with other surfaces depending on your own comfort level. You just might find that you like it.
“Try grass and sand first, then experiment with other surfaces depending on your own comfort level. You just might find that you like it.”
A condescending hippie. Shocker. We the unenlightened have no idea what walking barefoot is like.
“There are few things that feel as good as squishing through the mud with curious toes!”
“Curious toes”? We’re perilously close to fetish territory. Speaking of which…
http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/
No?
“No?”
No.
Stop! Please, STOP. Oh! My brain! It hurts! It hurts!
The art of zen walking is to let the ground rise to your feet rather than putting your foot down.
His feet also fit inside his asshat?
While we’re slightly on the topic, does anyone have experience with shoes by Masai Barefoot Technology?
http://us.mbt.com/
Regarding fivefingers, ugly but as someone who likes canoeing, open water swimming, and hiking, that looks like a cool idea…if it truly is as good as advertised…so long as I don’t cross paths with one of my hunting buddies…
Regarding our asshat friend, did anyone catch the brilliant comment at about :22? “As a FEATure of making the world a better place”…Feature/FEET-SHARE…get it? The man is a regular cornucopia of wisdom…
Fiverfingers? Isn’t that the sort of thing people use stomping around the Pacific Northwest making Bigfoot tracks?
Franklin,
I hadn’t heard of those. I quite like the Bomoa Black, in a “Space 1999” sort of way.
http://us.mbt.com/Home/Collection/Shoes/Bomoa-Black-W.aspx
Though I’m not entirely convinced by the alleged “walking in conventional shoes” posture. I somehow manage to walk upright in my trusty Timberlands.
Oh dear God, this is turning into Footwear Today.
No way is this not a parody. No one, I mean *no one* can be this fucking asinine.
“This is a time of global warming. Through our feet we can begin to feel it.”
It does make a hell of a lot more sense than coring trees.
Franklin,
Thanks for the link. “Masai Barefoot Technology?” The perfect weekend footwear for Those Who Are More Aware.
Good grief. Anybody remember Earth Shoes?
Someone is taking Bokononism way too seriously.
A true idiot sponsored by the BBC … You can’t make up such nonsense … We shoulddeduct sock and shoe expenses from all BBC employees to express solidarity
There is nothing so zany that a Progressive “intellectual” will not declare it a moral imperative. What is next? An act of Congress and the UN that the endangered species of hookworm be protected and its “habitat” increased?
You say that is too absurd? Then you have not been paying attention.
Antony Gormley is possibly what an English friend used to call me at times. A “gormless twit”.A good case of fostbitten toes will change his tune or perhaps a sharp object might be the ticket.Rusty nail meets Gormley foot.
He’s an artist so he’s allowed to say stupid stuff on other subjects and not be questioned on it.
First off, he’s a crap artist; my toddler grandchildren could have done better. Secondly, I bet his mummy never let him go barefoot when he was a kid.
“Try grass and sand first, then experiment with other surfaces depending on your own comfort level. You just might find that you like it.”
Perhaps you could also try BROKEN GLASS, common in modern urban environments.
THAT would be a real connect with Gaia!
Lighten up on the poor creative artist. He may be talking about carbon footprints. When it comes to these Al Gore is a regular Sasquatch.
Earth First’s slogan, “Back to the Pleistocene,” should have alerted one and all at the time that “environmentalism” is nothing more–and nothing less–than the anti-industrial revolution.
The day after tomorrow? Caves and bear skins.
Remember that during the next Earth Day celebration.
The human race, spurred on by its 2,000 year old suicide ethics, currently delights in envisioning its own destruction.
Soon, very soon, it will delight in actually making that a reality.
The rising paranoia envinced by constant documentaries listing Earth ending scenaros–by giant volcanos, super tsunamis, asteroids, cosmic rays, solar explosions, etc.–is evidence of the growing realization that the “ideals” of our holy morality of self-destruction will require the annihilation of the human race.
And the band played on.
What you just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I’ve ever heard. At no point were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it.
Invite to Alaska extended…
I am tired of you right-wingers who need to make nasty comments about everything creative and beautiful. Just because you are too rigid and narrow-minded doesn’t mean everybody else is, too.
I followed Antony Gormley’s advice and stepped barefoot on the floor in front of the woodstove. Boy, was it a surprise! There are 10 inches of snow outside but the tiles are warm! I did not know that. Then I put my big toes into the fire and I got burned. The man is right—our feet are very sensitive. I think that people in the third world put their feet in the fire all the time. We Westerners have become too civilized and disconnected from the natural world. We don’t have gravel pits inside of our houses like in the video but it’s a great idea. I’ve just spray painted a rectangle on the hardwood floor in the living room where we could build one.
What a hit at our next party is it going to be!
Stepping in liquid cat s**t is exquisite too, followed by tracking it on to your new white carpet. Warm sustainable fuzzies!
In the land where everyone is barefoot, the man in boots is king.
Alaska? This twit wouldn’t last 10 minutes north of the Ohio River in January or February!
My idea to save the Earth–no more Progressive Twits!
I think he taking baby steps. Isn’t the true way to be one with Gaia, to shed not only socks and shoes, but shirts, trousers and smalls.
If only we all walked around without clothing, then we would live in peace and harmony.
Anyone considering his advice seriously should Google “barefoot” and “parasite” first. 1,580,000 hits.
If you remove all the pink, socialist BS about global warming and solidarity, he makes a decent point, which is that it’s nice to go barefoot sometimes. Within reason. As a youth, I used to go barefoot all over Portland in the summer time – one of the few cities with a downtown clean enough to do so. It really is kind of liberating. If you do it often enough, if gets easier. On the other hand, there are lots of good reasons humans have been covering at least the soles of their feet for thousands of years. And some people should always cover their feet, as a favor to the rest of us.
So don’t let your reaction to a British twit artist prevent you from occasionally experiencing the joy of barefootedness.
MaxPSI, please scroll up and read Anna’s response to SoleMusic…Do you actually think that the rest of us have no clue as to what it is like to go barefoot? Really, what’s your point?
I’m involved with a preschool in a fairly affluent area, and I swear some of the children have never been barefoot outside their homes. (I feel certain that they’re all barefoot at all times inside their homes. I understand this hygeine measure; I don’t enforce it in my house, which I think is probably OK since I no longer have babies crawling around on the floors, and since I live in the ‘burbs and pretty much have to drive everywhere, my family and I aren’t tracking in NEARLY as much grossness as we’d get on our feet in the city.) Of course, these are very young children; presumably someday they’ll embrace rebellion and take off their shoes outside when their mothers aren’t looking.
Oh, P.S.: the tremendous quantity of goose poop in my yard tends to deter my kids from going barefoot there at certain times of year. Goose poop obstacle courses: another of the joys of barefootedness (which, honestly, I do love – I’m a pedicurist’s nightmare in the summer).
Orion,
Google ranks this post on Gormley as #13 when you search for barefoot parasite. The higher-rated entries are all medical-related.
Also, ‘Gormley barefoot’ produces only twice as many hits as ‘Gormley parasite’.
-S
I speak for the hookworms. I speak for the hookworms, for the hookworms have no tongues.
“No way is this not a parody. No one, I mean *no one* can be this fucking asinine.”
Oh yeah?
“Gormley doesn’t do messy beds or bisected sharks. But he did once propose a 12-metre-high ejaculating man for the waterfront at Seattle. The figure was meant to give an 11-second ejaculation of sea water every five minutes. “I intended it as an ironic comment on the male figure in relation to the whole idea of a fountain, because everyone knows the fountain is a male fantasy of permanent ejaculation.””
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article3444837.ece
Sounds asinine to me. Sorry, I mean “ironic”.
Sock the infidel! He offends the Temple of Sockology! Socks of the world, unite!
Allow me to rephrase on behalf of Mr Gormley:
“People with comfortable, upper-middle class lifestyles like mine can reconnect with mother-Earth by going sockless around our stylish designer apartments or well-ordered, clean and safe places of residence.
This allows us a wonderful smug connection with the Earth-mother while freeing us from actually doing anything constructive whatsoever. It also makes a wonderful conversation-piece at dinner parties”
As you can tell, I think this is a proper winer of an idea.