COLEMAN STEVENSON
Pocket Doors, 2024
Hardwood panels, monotype, ink, jute twine, metal keys
3” x 5” / 6” x 5”
$60 ea.
When I moved into my new home, a100+ year old house, I was given a large, unruly pile of keys. A few days later, I began the process of trying them in every door, setting aside the keys that had no corresponding lock on the property — despite being kept around for all that time. Two years later, the orphaned keys remained with me, housed in an old tin, doors unfound…
When considering the “vide poche,” I thought about the practical and the magical items I habitually carry with me when I leave the house, and all the small, natural items that feel intuitively significant enough to pocket and carry back across the threshold into my home. Thinking about thresholds, entry, and doors brought to mind my orphaned keys. What if they weren’t keys to nothing, but, in fact, keys to doors that just weren’t obvious? These doors began to materialize as I recollected previously hidden features of my home that renovations had revealed; how seasonal shifts had unveiled beautiful buried potential on the property; and the undeniably mystical phenomena I’ve experienced since entering this house.
In honor of these special liminal spaces I’ve been allowed to witness (AND the old pocket doors separating my living room from my library), here are my “pocket doors,” accompanied by their corresponding keys, opening onto glimpses of secret things.
