A man chased his enemies into a room.
They ran in slammed and locked a strong wooden door behind
them.
The man kicked and beat on the door but it would not give
way.
His enemies for the time being were safe.
The man sat exhausted his hands bloody from smashing the
door.
His hate drained away and soon he felt compassion for the
people locked in the room.
He asked them to come out.
They said never.
The man found a steel bar and smashed a hole in the door.
The people in the room believed it was their end.
The man waited quietly then stuck his arm through the hole.
He did not make a threatening gesture he simply reached
out his arm with the palm open.
In time his arm grew tired but he was patient and waited.
Finally a hand touched his hand then clasped and shook it.
He had chanced his arm and gained entrance to the room.
This is a collaborative community project ending
with an exhibition/installation at the Mattie
Rhodes Art Centre in Kansas City Missouri fall of 2002.
Working with the Department of Fine Print at
NCAD Dublin,
Hugh Merrill is producing a large poster, The Reconciliation
Door, that is going to be installed on the campus at a location
to be determined. The poster is a process concerned with reconciliation
and is to be drawn, signed and written on by members of this
community. The changes in the poster will be captured as digital
photographs and sent to Hugh Merrill in America and become a
resource for the exhibition/installation.
Placed on the computer in Fine Print is a file-titled
Reconciliation. Everyone is invited to make a digital image
concerning reconciliation. Please save your images in the completed
image file. On April Fools Day the images will be burned on
a CD and sent to Hugh Merrill. He will print them out or project
them during the coming fall exhibition/installation. He will
not alter your images beyond sequencing them for digital projection.
He will not sell your images. He will give credit to all those
who participate and if a catalogue is published will send participants
a copy.
He is interested in collaboration. Please feel
free to use his digital images as a resource for your own work.
Feel free to print any of his images on any paper you like to
add for your own collection.
In August he will be working with a mountain
village in Guatemala. He will ask that community to also create
images concerned with reconciliation. He will digitally photograph
their work. The exhibition/installation in Kansas City will
be made up of projected images and digital prints from Dublin,
Guatemala, and documentation of the trips, his writings, digital
work and drawings.
