Viewing Christian Marclay: Doors

White Cube Mason’s Yard unveils Christian Marclay’s latest cinematic masterpiece, “Doors” (2022), for its London premiere. If you missed its debut at the Centre Pompidou in Paris (2022) or its recent cameo at Art Basel (2023), fear not – your date with doors is now here. Marclay takes us on a riveting cinematic adventure, crafting a montage of doors swinging open and shut, a narrative as old as the film itself. With clips from a decade’s worth of films spanning genres, black-and-white to technicolour, French New Wave to Hollywood blockbusters, “Doors” is a cinematic voyage through literal and metaphysical thresholds.

Marclay, the maestro of temporal trickery, conjures an illusion of perpetual motion, leaving you perpetually intrigued. There’s no clear starting point or grand finale here; instead, each edit serves as a portal to another cinematic universe, a bit like falling into a celluloid rabbit hole. It’s a sculptural mind-bender where you can get lost or ride the cinematic waves.

Presented alongside the video is a series of Marclay’s door sculptures. Returning to sculpture for the first time in two decades, the found doors undergo an artistic reconstruction that selects the construction of the video. As the sculptures emerge in an array of new forms, they probe the material presence of doors themselves. From his early door adventures to his minimalist reinterpretation in “Doors,” Christian Marclay’s obsession with portals continues to intrigue and inspire. So, come on down to White Cube Mason’s Yard and prepare to open the door to an artful enigma. Who knows what’s on the other side?