RED SHOE DELIVERY SERVICE is a 3 artist collaborative group from Portland, OR / NYC. RSDS works to reconfigure the idea of Dorothy's “Ruby Slippers” in order to create an interactive art experience that provides a practical service. Dubbed “art that moves you” RSDS is made up of a van, a driver, a photographer and an arsenal of red glittery shoes. Participants are asked to don a pair of shoes, click their heels and say “There is No Place Like…” at which point they are transported to their desired destination in the city they are performing. The van acts as a mobile gallery and the art changes with every new city RSDS visits. Multimedia documentation of this magic ride results in works that reflect the collaboration between artist and every participant.

RSDS does not see themselves as performers, rather they act as architects of imagined space, orchestrating a fantasy site where the person on the street becomes the performer.This fantasy site is a place where dreams are not so impossible and trust and risk are the necessary ingredients to achieve the magic. Motivated by thoughts of transformation, desire, risk, home, storytelling and getting to know someone, RSDS creates photographs, videos, paintings, installations and multimedia lectures and interactive DVDs, mining their experiences with their passengers. RSDS configures itself differently with each new place they visit, sometimes presenting theme-based installations like the “RED SHOE DELIVERY SHOE STORE” constructed for PICA’s Time Based Arts Festival, the “RSDS Dispatch Center” at the NYC Armory Show in collaboration with the Swiss Institute – Contemporary Art, or RSDS TRAVEL AGENCY, offering virtual travel to just about anywhere, which will be part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival in October of 2005. At other times RSDS mounts video projections or monitor based work as done for the Core Sample Show in Portland Oregon and as part of the “ORB Wireless” show at the New Exhibition Space in Copenhagen. Susan Beal of Art Access magazine writes of RSDS “ photographs and videography artfully capture passengers embarking and arriving, illustrating the importance of the journey as wells as the destination.”

The collaborative team of RSDS includes, MK Guth (Portland, OR), multimedia artist and the originator of the project, Molly Dilworth (NYC), painter and designer who curates, “Mobile Home” the roving exhibit in the RSDS van, and multimedia artist Cris Moss (Portland, OR). Together they share in the process and development of the project acting as the ambassadors for every new participant in the project. RED SHOE DELIVERY SERVICE first ran in NYC in summer of 2003. Since then they have presented this project in Copenhagen, Paris, Portland, OR, NYC, Nottingham England and Melbourne Australia

www.redshoedeliveryservice.com