The art of heeling?

"Out of the Closet: Clothing as Imagery in Contemporary Art," the main exhibit at the Salt Lake Art Center through Jan. 8, 2000, includes the work of 17 artists who use the visual language of clothing and dress as a vehicle to explore deeper layers of human behavior and relationships. In John Runnels' "The Way Some Women Walk," above, the artist uses shoes to demonstrate our culture's ideals, desires and morals. Only a few of the artists use unaltered, functional articles of clothing in the exhibit. Instead, they reinterpret, transform or reconstruct through the media of installation, performance art, photography, painting, sculpture and fabric. The exhibition, although replete with serious content, is tempered with humor and irony, making the show accessible.