Matt's Gallery

Annie Whiles: Doorway Guardians

Name: Annie Whiles: Doorway Guardians
Start: 2026-01-24T12:00:00+00:00
End: 2026-03-15T18:00:00+00:00

Date

Sat 24 Jan - Sun 15 Mar 2026

No Booking Required

'Doorway Guardians' is a series of three large woodcarvings by Whiles. They combine the imagery and culture of British seaside destinations with the media and methods of sacred painted medieval carvings, while echoing the artist’s memories of molded-plastic charity collection boxes of the 1960s and ’70s.

They are designed to sit in the entranceways and thoroughfares of gallery buildings. Their role as divine attendants is to be preoccupied but open, listening and on watch, to be touched. Throughout 2026 they will simultaneously occupy entrance spaces at Matt’s Gallery in London and KARST in Plymouth.

Over the course of the year they will be rotated and exchanged, following the galleries’ exhibition schedules and setting up a changing series of encounters for visitors at both venues.

'Doorway Guardians' was developed by Whiles with support from an Arts Council England Developing Your Creative Practice grant and Goldsmiths, University of London.