Eye Door

About

Now well into the 21st century, it’s safe to say that we live in interesting and troubled times. Are we unconsciously walking into a dystopian future? With real threats of global warming, pandemics, world war and possibly zombies, the wise person looks for sanctuary.

Safehouse 1 is a peeled back and hollowed out Victorian terraced house whose structure and weathered walls are an integral part of this exhibition. In preparation the artists embarked upon new dialogues between their work and the space, welcoming the changing readings that open-up in this new context.

Eye-Door is the spyglass that looks out at the world. The peephole to see who is at the threshold. The mind’s eye that lets the artist process their observations. Eye-Door is a portcullis, a guardian, a portal through which the artist and their audience will journey. Once Eye Door has been entered, we may venture upon parallel existences inside Safehouse 1, made up of inner chambers, each room a place of its own character and meaning.

Elements of the artwork, such as Bone-Waller’s colour-filled figurative paintings utilise the rawness of Safehouse 1 to encourage a direct commentary upon the issues of the time we live in. Whilst other pieces hug the walls, for example Helen Scalway’s psychological self-portraits as rooms, that sit under the water-tight roof, encouraging completive reflections.

Whilst the craziness of humankind continues like a destructive juggernaut outside, inside Safehouse 1 is a blend of artistic disciplines and analysis, a compound of architecture and boundaries, shape and colour, and of course humans, in what may be one of the last bastions.