What can an empty boot symbolize that a person wearing boots cannot in Eleanor Antin's 100 Boots series?Art 21 is a show which highlights...

An empty boot, like the ones in Eleanor Antin 100 Boots
series, can be a character.  It can be an entity.  Even when Antin arranges the boots in
pairs, it feels like each boot is a member of the crowd.  An empty boot can be
personified, while a boot on a foot cannot.  Whenever a human figure is in the picture
it totally takes over.  The boots would just be a thing that a person or 50 people were
wearing.  When they stand alone, they carry with them that element of humor that the Art
21 episode is about.  The piece titled 100 boots out of a job is
hilarious; a picture of 50 actual people out of a job would be sad, scary, and
pitiful.