I am exhibiting new Sculpturescape work at the Fringe Arts Bath.   The curators  Mike and Dona Bradley,  describe doorways as thresholds to somewhere new.  Doorways are the physical symbol of the transition – of change – between the ‘now’ and the ‘next’, from ‘here’ to ‘there’; moving in, moving out, moving on.  Familiar in ritual, religion, myth and literature, doorways have emotional power.  Doorways occupy the liminal space between two states of being, a transition that has to be negotiated before the ‘next’ can begin.

Rite of Passage is one of the Sculpturescapes I am showing at the exhibition.  It shows  a figure from the vantage point of a doorway, a crack in the door or a door that is ajar.  The figure is a lady in a pose of prayer, consolation, meditation.  Here she is alone and we are looking through into her private space.  It forces us to ask ourselves whether or not we should be looking?  We are not being invited to enter in through the doorway, but to stay outside and hidden.  If we look beyond her we see that she entered from another space, through a dimly lit archway.  That entrance beyond is mysterious and holds a slight feeling of eeriness.  Where does this doorway take her?  Where has she come from?  Does she turn left to leave this sacred space, or right?  Does she belong in our time?  Who is she and in what sort of world does she belong?  In what sort of world do we belong?  Is this a doorway to an earlier time when prayer and contemplation were commonplace?