Edition of 7
250 × 300 × 110 mm
Photopolymer resin, card, ink
Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity
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Please note this is a pre-order. The edition will be available following the end of the installation in late October.
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Heresy puts the figure of the nighttime social worker into focus, displaying pairs of transparent high heels arranged in various dance foot formations as symbolic stand-ins for absent bodies. Drawing from the impossibility of putting yourself in someone else's shoes, the Cinderella trope is reified to illuminate the struggles of street-working women who perform invisible acts of intimate labor in order to survive. Each pair of shoes is accompanied by a «Miss [X]» title, echoing the pageantry of strolling, followed by a pop culture reference that alludes to the feminine sacrifice inherent to self-determination and communal devotion.
The seven pairs of shoes presented in the installation will be released as a limited edition of seven unique works, individually titled «Miss Staring At The Dark But Their Eyes Are Watching God» (1/7), «Miss Perfect 10s (Face, Body and Sex Appeal)» (2/7), «Miss Touch Me Not» (3/7), «Miss Behaving» (4/7), «Miss 8 And Feeling Unseen, 9 And Feeling Unloved» (5/7), «Miss Lady Sings The Blues» (6/7), and «Miss Single Black Female Addicted To Retail» (7/7).
Marcelline Mandeng Nken (b. 1993, Yaoundé, Cameroon) is an interdisciplinary artist working across sculpture, installation, new media, text, and performance. Her practice investigates how diasporic care and maintenance traditions shape conditions of belonging, especially within queer and trans lifeworlds, where home is assembled through chosen kinship.
Mandeng Nken was a 2025 Dance Research Fellow at the New York Public Library's Jerome Robbins Dance Division. She is a grantee of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Leeway Foundation, and a former resident of Skowhegan, Goethe Institut Boston, Whistle Space Summer Institute, Vermont Studio Center, and SOMA Summer. Her work has been presented at MoMA PS1, The Kitchen, Judson Memorial Church, Mercer Union, Karma International, Cibrian, FringeArts, MCA Chicago, and Córdova. She holds an MFA from Yale School of Art.
