Introducing: Carolin Holzhuber´s CURRENT CURVATURE

We are in Love with shoe designer Carolin Holzhuber’s work. Combining culture and craft, Austrian-born footwear designer Carolin Holzhuber is a one to watch designer for 2019. Viewing her work more as sculpture than footwear construction, Carolin’s motivation is to develop a continuing dialogue between her pieces and those who encounter her work. Functioning as compositions made up of many crucial and carefully thought of components, the beauty of her work is fully appreciated when understanding her footwear as objects to be considered, reconsidered, and examined, detail by detail.

The word “curvature” is what initially led Carolin Holzhuber on the exploration of how greed and mass production destroy environment and imagination. Usually boasting clean, structural lines, the fluidity that is the designer’s signature is interrupted by tumor like growths on the otherwise striking shoes. The form is uncomfortable to look at and not by accident. “[It is] my responsibility as an artist/maker/designer to create pieces that translate these problems into objects.” Carolin says of her work. Her willingness to explore the ugly side of our need to create and produce is meant to encourage us all to be willing to openly acknowledge our darker traits. CURRENT CURVATURE is also a collection of protest.

The pieces are also meant to be viewed as an artistic expression of the imbalance and abuse of power, Carolin wants to not only highlight the obscene nature of those who seek to exercise their will over those who may exist in positions of powerlessness, but as a means of empowering those are forced to become victims.

The malignant forms on each piece are created by making molds with plaster which are then covered with leather and stiffener material. Once the leather shapes to the mold, the mold is removed so that the tumor-like shapes are hollow (much like the ideals they represent), and are then stitched together using copper and silver wire. The heels themselves are made with wood covered in either in copper, aluminum or leather. Each style features a carbon fibre sole that makes the shoe comfortable to wear.

Not without hope and optimism, Carolin completes the collection with two styles that are free from the molded forms as a means of expressing a positive shift in energy and a return to purpose being the driving force for art. www.carolinholzhuber.com and @carolinholzhuber

words by  Daniella Bullen
editorial photography Francesco Zinno
black garment Sebastian Owsianka