The making of my door.

As you know my current practice involves me creating the illusions of both a door and air vent leading to alternate realities. My planning has stumbled on many occasions, this due to the struggle with keeping its meaning in-tact. In many ways I can see great idea’s which are really not feasible. For instance I concluded at one point that I could create the ultimate experience by constructing an exterior wall along the original; however after speaking with technicians I found that due to many constrictions it was not realistically possible. Equally as important as the structure is the lighting that my work requires. This is to generate a sense of mystery and provoke reactions. I believe that a ray of light both peeping through the door and through the vent offers an insight to another place and proves existence. Also at the same time opens up viewers imaginations and reinforces their own personal beliefs. Now after all of my planning was complete my next aim was to actually start building. I got my materials and then started to build the frame structure.

This photograph gave me an idea of how it may look along a wall. I am also aware that the gallery wall is alot bigger so I had to seriously consider the size of the door.

In my first build I made a few minor mistakes but I want my final piece to look top quality so I decided to build it again. I screwed all of the frame together and then the next stage was to attatch the door using hinges. Once I had done this I need to find the correct source of light to do the required job.


As already explained I need a strong ray of light coming from behind the door. I managed to get a set of three LED lights powerful enough to give of the right amount of light and also longer lasting. I had previously experienced that battery operated lights were not appropriate for many reasons.

These are the battery powered lights. They are not nearly enough powerful and also not long enough lasting to work over the exhibition duration. Also the light is not very spread out and you can tell they are individual spotlights I returned these and looked for something more powerful.

This is my door with the mains powered lights, they are actually cabinet lights. This looks much alot better and more believable. I am very happy with how this has resulted, this is how I aimed it to look. I am aware that the gallery won't be as dark as this but I have tested these light in other conditions and they work well. This is the stage I am now at. Obviously this still has to be sanded down and painted then it will be complete. After this is complete I will begin building the air vent piece. I still have three weeks left and so far I believe my work is on target.