Reese Palley Gallery, 140 Maiden Lane, now Xanadu Gallery

Terry Fox, Asbestos Tracking (18th May 1970)

Description

It took up the whole length of the room. I put my shoes in a pan of asbestos at one end and made there parallel tracks along the floor. The first was running. No, not running. Shuffling and skipping. Dragging, shuffling, and skipping. Shuffling was first. I kept both my feet on the floor all the time, the way old men walk. I got into a slumpy posture and shuffled real slow. It was theatrical, but no one saw me. I wanted tracks of that action. If I had shuffled just for the sake of it, and if I hadn’t been dejected when I did it, I don’t think the prints would have been the same. (Fox 2000: 29)