Kicks On Film | Recap

The 29/07/12 saw the opening of pop up exhibition Kicks On Film at V22 in Bermondsey, London. An afternoon and evening based around the screening of a broad selection of sneaker documentaries was supplemented by a sneaker installation comprising of 1500 photographs of sneakers displayed as a single artwork on a wall 15 meters long and 5 meters high. 

Taking its inspiration from Flight Club in New York, the installation was designed to showcase the variety and abundance of Nike models both old and new as well as the rare and historically important. The images (all sourced from Sneakerpedia with no repeats) included portions of famed collections from the likes of DJ Clark Kent, Bobbito Garcia, Grandmaster Caz and Mayor. With such an abundance and diversity of sneakers on display it could have been billed as the perfect collection. With the deliberate incompletion of the last row one was led to believe that there is no such thing as the perfect collection as no collection is ever really complete as long as new sneakers are being made. 

With the closer examination of the wall it became evident that a display of this scale and detail allowed viewers to hunt around for their favourite models and colourways. At times a few felt compelled not just to point at a specific sneaker but take off their own shoes and hold them in the place of the replicated image on the wall. It was hard not to feel the pangs of nostalgia as one would walk up and down the wall reminiscing over the fact that there on the wall was yet another sneaker that had alluded capture in past years. 

Seeing the wall from a distance, it was hard not to feel a complete sense of awe and wonder at the scale of installation. It is one thing to have your neck snapped by a pair of sneakers walking past you in the street, but to  have a sensory overload on this scale, was an experience like no other. At the most basic of levels it was near impossible not to simply stand there and stare minute after minute, allowing one's brain to slowly process all the information picture by picture. If Nike had felt like they had been left out of the London Olympic party with Adidas bagging the sponsorship gig, then this must be considered a fortuitous and brilliant counter punch.