Sather door

This piece evolved an original idea that I had involving placing a door set apart from the entrance of the “Faux Real” show. Though I was not entirely sure what I wanted to do with it, I began searching for doors and over a two week process, my ideas formed into an appropriation of Sather gate. I chose to write about this particular piece because I feel that it best represents my artistic process. Most often, I find myself gravitating towards making pieces that reflect the contrast between man and nature or organic and man made, rather. One process that has come naturally to me through this fascination of opposing characteristics is taking a perfectly functional object and turning it into something completely different. By doing so, the viewer now has an opportunity to recognize an otherwise normally submissive object. A combination that sticks out to me when I think about this concept is the placement of a door in an unlikely location. A door is an object that one passes through. It is not intended to be observed for aesthetic pleasures. I had originally intended to find a door of a more industrial nature and place it somewhere in nature, mostly likely an empty field or in a forest. When I came across the green door, however, I thought it was too beautiful not to use. I quickly began formulating ideas in my mind about where the most appropriate place was for this to be placed. One day as I walked to class, I passed through Sproul Plaza and under Sather gate and once again noticed how thoughtlessly thousands of people passed through this area everyday. It suddenly dawned on me that this would be an ideal location to place the door, as it would completely alter the viewer’s relationship with the space. I built a free standing door frame, attached the door then placed it under Sather gate. For a short time of 2 hours, hundreds of passerby observed, stared, and played with the door. I had appropriated Sather gate, a prominent landmark leading to the center of UC Berkeley.