Access and Ambiguity (The Door Project),
Access and Ambiguity, a body of work which has occupied much of my creative time for the first decade and a half of the 21st century, was the result of a chance encounter while participating in a teaching residency in Dublin Ireland.
Only Ghosts became the anchor for Access and Ambiguity, a body of work that explores the door, its scale and/or proportions, its symbolism and paradoxical qualities of providing yet also barring access. The door is of a human scale. It is an object made by humans, more often than not, for humans. Therefore, the door, and or objects of similar scale and proportions imply human presence, intentions, interests and affairs. It is an object of action, in order to use the door one must open it, pass through the door. Conversely, in barring access, the door becomes active; preventing the action of those denied that access.
Access and barrier, promise and deterrence, connection and division; the door is all of these. Its function is both utilitarian and conceptual. The door seals us in our protective dwellings, safe from the onslaughts of both nature and intruder. It marks the boundary between outer and inner, social and private. It reveals and conceals. Ultimately, it represents a frontier; a place where the external world meets the subjective perceptions of that experienced world and how those perceptions are mitigated through the lived body. The door both invites and bars engagement. In its scale, proportions and purpose the door speaks of a distinctly human world.
Access and Ambiguity: Only Ghosts, 2000, 72″ x 35 x 5″, oil, acrylic medium, lace and nails on old door,©2023, Mark Gerard McKee)
Mark Gerard McKee 