Pepón Osorio, Angel: The Shoe Shiner, 1993

Pepón Osorio: My name is Pepón Osorio and I live in Philly—Philadelphia. 

So, Angel: The Shoe Shiner was done in 1993. And what I was most concerned [about], at that time, was connecting with people in my vicinity near the place where I lived. 

And, so, I came across this shoeshiner. His name was Angel and we had many, many conversations, which is basically part of my whole process of making work. My methodology is that I spent a lot of time talking. And then, after that, sort of metaphors come in, and then I translate them into three-dimensional pieces. 

And Angel had this relationship, which was very interesting, a co-relationship with power. He was always at the bottom of the client, and the client was always above him. I put him on the throne as a way of creating some sort of equity in that power relationship that is happening.

Narrator: In the video at the base of the throne, we see Angel using his spit to shine his client's shoes. For Osorio, this act also rebalanced the hierarchy of power. The throne is covered in materials that he thinks of as attributes of the shoeshiner. 

Pepón Osorio: I gather a lot of the materials that encrusted the surface from the nearby novelty stores. Some of them are specifically for weddings and quinceañeras, which is the fifteen instead of sweet sixteens. Some of them, I got them at a 99-cent store.

Time, the clock is on the very, very top. And it's an element of time, and how he was running time because at the same time he was very scared that he would be thrown out—which, in fact, it happened—out of his business, because of the gentrification in the neighborhood.