On the 21st September, 2019, an exhibition of art gallery front door proposals by 8 gallery assistants was installed at PEER Gallery in Hoxton, London, for the Open House London Architecture Weekend. Rebecca Moss had been working with this group as a commissioned artist for six months, exploring a 'zero budget' approach to making, and thinking about how art practice could be intensified by limited economic circumstances. The exhibition was co-curated with Alice White, Curator for Local Audiences.
The gallery assistants are selected from the local area, are ages 17-24 and are from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. For the group exhibition, Moss proposed an exhibition of front door proposals for PEER Gallery, moving away from formal and possibly intimidating gallery doors with buzzers. Each gallery assistant was given a door, which was sourced locally from the East London area, and encouraged to think about accessibility of art institutions, approachability and the presence of the gallery in Hoxton Street.
What insights might these gallery assistants, who spend hours invigilating art exhibitions and introducing visitors to the work, have around the symbolic function of the door, and making the gallery as open and inclusive as possible? How and why could a formal gallery door pose a barrier to accessing art?
Featuring the work of: Aantu Waday, Naile Karavil, Gideon Owusu, Fatim Kamara, Amida Deen, Iarla Prendergast Knight, Devinya Thomas and Ellise Johnson.
