The Liverpool Doors Project, work begins.

With over 20 doors to work on the space and time required was always going to be an issue. The size alone made the task of moving them a reason to take up weight training and visits to the physio a regular thing.

We began by deciding what text, imagery and object would go on each 'page' easier said than done. When I say 'we' I mean that Roger would consult a book (One I had made) with all the poems etc that he had decided would be used, with our sketches, plans and thoughts added, while I would prop the page (door) up I was able to look at the surface and think of methods of being able to make our ideas work.

As we worked ideas came and went, some were explored to destruction whilst ideas we had from the very beginning of the project worked without any problems.

As with a lot of creative work it looked like very little was being done, but let me assure you tons was being done.

The Liverpool Doors Project, on the train again.

An other trip to Liverpool..... with the opening date being the 24th of February the final lap is to be run......

Liverpool Doors....

Poet and good all round egg Roger McGough and I will be working in Liverpool later this year.... we will be making books out of doors.
The book /s library will form part of the permanent collection of the new Museum of Liverpool, the main opening is the 19th of this month with the installation of our work later in the year.

Why doors ? I hear you ask... well here is the background to the concept....
On one of the very rare evenings that Roger and I found ourselves in the Red Lion pub (Barnes) at the same time.... we started to talk about our various projects. Over our first beer the chat flowed this way and that.....
During the second Roger asked me how big could a book be made... I replied that in theory any size but practically about the size of a door... Roger had been asked to produce some work for the New Museum of Liverpool and wondered if a large book would work... the chat turned to ideas...by the third pint the ideas had turned into sketches on the reverse of the menus.
After many false starts and cul de sacs we came up with using doors .

Doors fantastic things.. They open and close,we are carried through them at birth and death... they keep us safe, the welcome us. Notes are pinned to them for the milk man, letters are posted through them, loo roll, coats, and towels are hung on them. Posters are blu tacked to them........... doors everywhere , quite often we do not notice them until they are not there.

With their different paint, knobs, letter boxes etc each has their own special history, but when a property is re-developed or pulled down where do we see the doors ? by and large used to line skips or torn up and left as rubbish.
This is why we are using doors.... They can form a diptych, triptych etc. Ori Hon, with a bit of work one can make a codex out of them.



We have started with the collection and our first doors are from the Everyman Bistro and Theatre.



Roger and doors.......