Behind Open Doors: a Quilted Room Installation in the Upper Vault Gallery at the New Bedford Art Museum
Every person has their story to tell but perhaps what is more fascinating is the story that goes untold. This is most evident in the experience we have with our friends and neighbors. Who do we choose tell our secrets too? Who do we think we know? What do we notice about each other? How does the appearance of our community reflect the truth we live? These questions are brought to the forefront in Behind Open Doors.
Walking down the row of quilted facades allows you to be both the watcher and the watched. This hits close home by creating emotional curiosity and paranoia much like the reality of what we experience in close community living. It shows the good and bad sides of secrets and intimacy. “Behind Open Doors” allows the us to take note of what we notice about our environment and the people who reside in our communities.
This installation depicts the abstract emotional lives that exist in every home. Families, relationships, people can be as loud, messy, frenzied, dark, stark and/or lonely as they can be loving, comforting, and/or fun. Behind Open Doors shows us that power and strength can come from being vulnerable, exposing the truth about emotional reality on the surface. The point of this installation is literally to cast our demons out.
*Behind Open Doors was up in the Upper Vault Gallery of the New Bedford Art Museum from February 9th to June 11th 2017.
