Dokodemo Door (2016 - ongoing)
Social sculpture / intentional community
For the last couple of years my practice has shifted away from object/sound based work into the arena of organised events.
The clearly quite hard to define cult-cum-rambling association-cum-scout group-cum-film club Dokodemo Door is my response to the fact that me, my friendship circle, and my demographic are by-and-large agnostic realms, bordering on atheist, and therefore potentially lacking the sense of community consistent with a religious practice. Which isn't to say that religion is just about meeting in the same place, singing the same songs, and seeing the same people, but that in a sense that is the best bit - it's just a shame that the pretext for what is essentially a knees-up is so frequently shrouded in pernicious dogma.
So:
It could just be a bunch of people wandering around in a forest. Getting lost. But then again, I keep organising these things and the same people keep turning up to listen to me reading to them and singing folk songs and leading the way through the trees and across the fields. Then those same people gather in my house, or in the upstairs room of a pub, to watch films that relate to the walks, or to sing songs that were sung on the walks, to eat food and play games, and to be a part of something.
So:
Dokodemo Door takes its name from the magical pink door that the Japanese cartoon character Doraemon keeps in his pouch - a door that can open up to anywhere in the world.
When you cross the threshold, whether it be by entering a forest, or stepping off a train, you go into another place. It is my sincere privilege to be able to open this door, and to step through it with friends.
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