100 Boots, 1971-1973
- Medium
- 51 halftone postcards
- Dimensions
- Each: 4 1/2 × 7 in. (11.43 × 17.78 cm)
- Accession Number
- 2015.17.1-51
- Credit
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Purchase with funds provided by the Drawings and Photography Committee
Antin’s 100 Boots consists of fifty-one postcards depicting one hundred black rubber boots as they make their way across America.
Staged and photographed in various locations—by the sea, in a grocery store—the boots are most often positioned in pairs, assuming a militaristic configuration as they march single file. Made during the height of the US involvement in Vietnam, a moment marked by growing opposition to the war, 100 Boots slips between pathos, satire, and unbridled sincerity. Antin sent the postcards to 1,000 artists, critics, and institutions, representing a larger tendency toward exploring alternate systems for the distribution of art in the 1970s, as artists sought to decentralize the gallery or museum as the primary site for experiencing art.
