an overwhelmingly american phenomenon

Earlier this week, activists arranged over seven thousand pairs of empty shoes on the lawn of the US Capitol to memorialise the estimated number of children killed in school shootings since the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre and to call out the government for its inaction when it comes to gun control just ahead of the mass-walkout that many, many brave students organised to mark a month since the last tragedy and signal their unwillingness to perpetuate this cycle of violence and hand-wringing. This powerful and direct statement makes the stakes very concrete and not seem abstract at all, no matter one’s distance from such brutality and echoes other times artists and protesters, as Hyperallergic explores, have harnessed the sociological currency that clothes and apparel disembodied or otherwise out of place can impel people to listen and attend and allows people to consider matters otherwise to horrific to contemplate.