The Story of Feet

"THE STORY OF FEET" by Queti Azurin

Many years back, my husband and I were stuck in heavy traffic along Vito Cruz. There was row of commercial stalls on the right and something along that area caught our attention.

A man was arduously pulling up the metal roll-up door of a shop. He was pulling it up from the inside so the only thing we could see were his feet and his hands clutching the edge of the door. His feet seemed like it was bearing the full weight of the door and the mechanism was not working right. His feet would twist and turn...turn to the right...turn to the left...face each other...face the opposite side and sometimes maneuver in acrobatic positions. He tried with all his might. We watched this hilarious scene for about 15 minutes; when our car drove off he was still at it!

That scene was difficult for me to forget. It would run in my head repeatedly and i would burst into laughter everytime. I found it absolutely amusing that a pair of feet could actually tell a story. I never got to see that man's face nor his entire body but his feet did all the talking. I could tell that he was so bent on accomplishing his task that morning- pull up the roll-up door by hook or by crook. From that moment, I decided that sometime soon I would do a series on feet.

Now, the story of feet begins...

("The Story of Feet" opens on Saturday, April 19, 2008, 6p.m. at 1/of Gallery, 2/L Shops at Serendra, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, Philippines)