Due to my love of art i decided i wanted in our piece to incorporate paint as from the beginning when we were told there was 17 layers of paint that the drill halls walls had had it made me want to definitely use paint. The other Laura has always liked the idea of polishing boots to bring the sense of smell in through polish and also relating it to the soldiers who would have had to keep their appearance smart but also it could be a metaphor for their boots having to go through a lot of hard work, marching up and down, becoming worn and tired in the trenches. So i then had the idea to link the two (paint and boots). I also like the idea of an instalment piece so the audience see a powerful visual along with a powerful audio. So we would then have sight, hearing and smell.. if we were to use boot polish as paint. The black footprints are made with polish and was very quick to put on.. we thought about the idea of using red footprints to represent the 83 soldiers who died from the 4th battalion. I then placed the footprints in a regimented fashion to represent the idea of soldiers being ordered and disciplined to keep in line. I then scattered them to create a different image and i thought this could represent that actually natural footprints would not be in a neat line and with all the drills the soldiers would have done they may have been quite scattered.
‘As I move around do I leave marks: ‘to walk is to leave footprints’ (Roms, quoted in Whitehead, 2006, p. 4)’
The idea for using footprints mainly is to leave a lasting image in the drill hall. representing the soldiers who’s footprints were left metaphorically and laying down new footprints, including our audiences who create the new history of the drill hall. To re instate this further we are thinking of getting the audience to sign their name at the bottom of their sheet of paper with the footprint they have printed.. so they become part of our piece.