We all know someone who knows everything about something. Cody Henrichs’ friends and family know he is a connoisseur of socks.
The artist and curator at the Sioux Falls Washington Pavilion visits with SDPB’s Lura Roti about his obsession with this everyday clothing item – and the collection he has amassed.
“I don’t wear the same pair of socks at all in the same year. There may be an occasion where I may encounter the same pair twice, if there is a certain circumstance, like I’m wearing a tie that needs that. But I have enough socks currently to not wear them for about two years,” Cody Henrichs said.
“You know I am very particular, because I am so specific it is very hard to get gifts for me, and when I was in undergraduate, I went to School in St. Paul, and I was like, “I am pretty boring in terms of dress, and I’m pretty bland. I don’t have a big show.” And socks are kind of like this secret, “hey.” It’s like a casual side note of personality, that can also be cloaked,’” Cody Henrichs said.
“I have been a teacher and in all these different settings, where you have to wear khakis and button down shirt every day and so as a result of being difficult to buy gifts for and having interest – everyone gets me socks, and I get myself socks,” Cody Henrichs said.
“They are in a dresser, in their own dedicated dresser. Top end up and by color, lightest to darkest, shortest to longest,” Cody Henrichs said.
“I have a collection of Jean Michel Basquiat socks. He’s a painter from the 1980s, and if have a big day, and I need to crush that day, I wear Basquiat socks,” Cody Henrichs said.
“I have been a curator my whole life. I am an artist by trade, I have an MFA in sculpture. I have been making art my whole life, but I operate in many ways different than other artists, in that I am more of a cataloguer, more of a space-maker. So, it is all curation,” Cody Henrichs said.
“It’s a thing for me too. It is private and public – depending on how short my pants are,” Cody Henrichs said.
