Sitting like a mishmash of shoes outside the door at a Brooklyn house party, Diana “Didi” Rojas’ handmade ceramic shoes obsessively fill her small New York studio. These quirky and intriguing clay objects reflect the maker’s sweet nature and also smartly function as provocative metaphors for her concepts of girlhood and individuality. Slyly woven into the works are tongue-in-cheek references, cynicism towards gender roles and twisted nods to well known stories like Adam and Eve and fairy tales such as The Princess and the Pea and The Red Shoes.

Although highly realistic, Rojas’ shoes are not simply straightforward reproductions of Dr. Marten “Mary Janes”, Crocs and UGG boots. Instead, they have been creatively customized and adorned with an array of the artist’s girl-coded charms. Lighthearted and playful additions like smiley-face stickers, cherries, crayons and even bow tie pasta– all convincingly formed with clay– are added to to some objects, while others bare witness to more menacing actions like clusters of nearly-used up pencils impaling a Croc or tightly-wrapped orange extension cords strangling a cowboy boot. While quiet at first glance, Didi Rojas’ shoes quickly lure you in to reveal a distinctive and rebellious voice. 

Girlishness is an attitude and attribute that is deeply embedded in Didi’s artworks; one which she fully embraces. Historically this trait has been dismissed as being frivolous, disempowering, and reductive, but Rojas rejects these notions and instead finds power and community in her love of girlhood and “putting a bow on it”. Her sculptures are a means of self portraiture, but more importantly they act as a call to action for us all to stand out and be ourselves. 

In the end, Didi Rojas’ shoes are quite literally as delicate as Cinderella’s glass slipper. This irony of form further highlights her message that we are all fragile and unique beings, and that we should strive to find humor in the everyday, reject our prejudices and embrace our own unique individuality.

Diana “Didi” Rojas (b. 1993 Cali, Colombia) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Rojas has exhibited across New York, including The Museum of Arts and Design, Launch F18, The Hole, Fragment, Tchotchke Gallery and Hannah Traore Gallery. She received her BFA from Pratt Institute in 2016. Didi’s work has been featured in Office Mag, VICE, Dazed, Artforum, i-D Magazine, and Vogue.