Jo Cope has carved out a niche for herself as an artist focusing on our cultural relationship with shoes. She works with traditional shoe making craft skills to create contemporary sculptural works and performances that inhabit a space between design and fine art practices.

This exhibition curated by Hugo Worthy at Leicester Gallery, De Montfort University is her largest to date and is a homecoming show for her after exhibiting globally for the past decade.

Cope has a conceptual and multifaceted practice communicating through many different mediums including craft, film, performance, photography and installation. Her multidisciplinary practice is reflected in a collaborative approach which has seen her working across dance, choreography, visual art, writing and of course fashion often with colleagues or students. Through these collaborations and she plays with the visual language of shoes to explore issues around identity, faith and health.

For this exhibition Jo Cope has brought together new pieces with past projects which include The Global Footprint commissioned by The Boot and Shoe Museum, Northampton in 2013, Material Movement Gala performance at Sadler's Wells Theatre, 2017 and The Feminist Rose at The Garden Museum London 2022.

The exhibition is informed by Jo’s early experiences of care as a beauty therapist and pays homage to her family history of shoemaking, particularly her maternal grandparents who worked in the shoe industry in the local village of Sileby.

Words by Hugo Worthy.