Worn: Footwear, Attachment and Affective Experience at Warrington Museum & Art Gallery

Sara Jaspan, Exhibitions Editor

Visit now

Worn: Footwear, Attachment and Affective Experience

30 September 2017-27 January 2018

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

Courtesy of the artist
Book now

While some may spend significant amounts of money on them, for most, shoes are largely considered to be simple everyday necessities. Not for artist/curator Ellen Sampson RA, however, whose recent PhD and wider art practice focuses entirely on our attachment to footwear.

Her new exhibition at Warrington Museum & Art Gallery explores shoes as evocative objects, loaded with meanings and memories; from magical shoes in fairy-tales to abandoned and empty shoes resonant with loss. Indeed, through use and wear, shoes become a record of the wearer’s lived experience – the paths they have walked and the journeys they have taken. For Sampson, a shoe is a vessel for memory; a repository of gesture. Even when our bodies are gone, traces of motion remain in the creases, folds and scuffs of use.

Worn: Footwear, Attachment and Affective Experience features a range of film and photography works as well as installation. Tread lightly. And wear your best.

The exhibition is part of Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival; a month-long event run by Culture Warrington, which aims to bring the best in contemporary art to a wider audience and encourage direct engagement across the town and region.

Where to go near Worn: Footwear, Attachment and Affective Experience at Warrington Museum & Art Gallery

Chorlton
Restaurant
Horse and Jockey Chorlton

Chorlton’s magnificent Horse and Jockey has had an almighty do-over, transforming it into one of South Manchester’s top must-visit drinking and dining destinations.

The Curling Club - Vinegar Yard
Castlefield
The Curling Club

New Jackson in Manchester is having a full scale seasonal takeover. Think curling lanes, lively bars and a packed line up of DJs and performances.

Chadderton Town Hall
Manchester
Event venue
Chadderton Town Hall

Chadderton Town Hall is a magnificent example of Edwardian architecture . Built in 1912/13 in the style of ‘English Renaissance’ and recently restored maintaining its traditional features in regal reds

Cumbria
Restaurant
Heft

A Michelin star restaurant and homely 17th century inn in the Lake District, with food provided by esteemed chef Kevin Tickle.

Tangerine
Chapel Street
Restaurant
Tangerine

Manchester’s latest must-visit multipurpose venue, offering top-level food, drinks and live shows.

Bar Posie
City Centre
Bar or Pub
Posie

A new cocktail bar from the crack team behind 10 Tib Lane and Henry C.

Manchester
Food hall
Kargo MKT

Mighty food hall in Salford Quays, with around twenty street food vendors, serving a huge range of cuisines.

Asap Coffee Interior/ Counter
Manchester
Café or Coffee Shop
ASAP Coffee

If you’re looking for quality coffee and a decadent brunch in a setting that nails the Northern Quarter brief, you’d struggle to do better than ASAP Coffee.

What's on: Exhibitions

Until
Exhibitions
The Vessel at PINK

Chris Thompson transforms PINK into an uncanny, interactive cabinet of obsessions, inviting visitors to uncover its shifting, unstable narratives.

Free entry

Culture Guides

A white mattress is burning in a black rocky landscape.
Exhibitions in the North

In galleries around the North this autumn, you'll find tactile sculptures, Treasures with a capital 'T' and plant magic.

Sepia image of a courtroom with the words 'Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird’
Theatre in the North

Winter brings a huge haul of seasonal shows, as well as productions that resolutely veer away from the fairy lights.

A performer in a bright red costume sits on a snowy stage set, holding a large snowball between their legs with a surprised expression. The colourful winter backdrop features snowflakes, hills, a snowman, and a traffic light with glowing lights.
Family things to do in the North

Whether you’re after storybook theatre, museum wanderings or illusion-bending play spaces, there’s plenty to keep curiosity ticking through winter and beyond.

Music in the North

Manchester’s closing out the year – and looking to the new one – with a run of gigs from some of the country’s best underground exports.

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
Cinema in the North

There's no shortage of great films out at the moment, whether you're looking for the latest blockbuster, that hot arthouse flick fresh from Cannes or a cosy classic.

Food and Drink in the North

Hear ye, hear ye. Take some eating-out tips from our wintertime guide to food and drink in Manchester and the North.