For David Gardner, the impetus for this project and exhibit came from a tree—festooned with shoes—beside U.S. Highway 50 in Nevada. After photographing it he started digging through his car for his own piece of footwear that he could add—and then he stopped, not really understanding why he’d experienced that odd impulse. He is interested in that impulse and its result as applied to the landscape.

Gardner says: “As humans we must communicate – it is what we do best. We seem hardwired from birth to do this via a complicated system using signs and symbols. But removed from our normal settings and tools, how do we compensate? Why are we compelled to ‘leave our mark’ upon landscape, whether or not others understand its meaning or semiology?”