LONDON: London-based artist P. Waniewski has created a thought-provoking and timely response to the incident involving Muntader Al-Zeidi, the Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoe at the then-US President, George W. Bush, in Baghdad in December.
The piece is a pair of bronze shoes covered in 24-karat gold, replicas of the style of shoe Al-Zeidi threw at Bush during a press conference. The shoes rest above a plaque that reads “Shoes of Honor” in Arabic.
“When I heard this story I was moved by the passion and fearlessness of Al-Zeidi’s actions,” said the artist. “The shoe that he threw was destroyed by the US authorities, so I felt it was a fitting way of marking this emotive event.”
Originally sentenced to three years behind bars for the incident, Al-Zeidi told a packed news conference recently that he intended to expose those involved in his alleged mistreatment. Among them, he said, were high-ranking Iraqi security officials.
“I saw the chance and I seized it,” he said. “If those who blamed me knew how many destroyed houses I walked over with those shoes, and how many times those shoes mixed with the blood of the innocent, and how many times those shoes went into homes where the honor of those who lived there was disgraced, then it was the proper response.”