“I wanted to depict a future for black and queer people that was bright, but also addressed the struggles that we go through now and would need to through to get to that future, but in a way that wasn’t just depressing.” – Noah Lawrence-Holder
Noah Lawrence-Holder’s The Door is Open depicts two subjects, situated in an opening on a brick wall. Surrounded by snaking dandelion vines and drifting butterflies, they stare the viewer down. It’s unclear whether suspicion rests on their face, or some other feeling.
The content of the piece is suggestive of any number of stories of portal words, from stepping through a wardrobe in Chronicles of Narnia to stumbling down a hole in Alice in Wonderland. All we can see of the world behind them is darkness. Through this opening, however, is a world that is slightly surreal and fantastical. Silvery vines snake in every direction, free from gravity, hanging off of bright blue bricks. An invisible breeze blows past, suspending the subject’s bright red hair. The vibrancy in this piece is optimistic and uplifting.
Also contributing to this feeling of fantasy is the chromatic aberration applied to the piece. This effect adds vibrancy to the colors by subtly separating and offsetting the solid colors into their primary components. More importantly, though, it’s an effect we associate with old television sets, with cartoons, movies, and video games. Now, it’s mainly used as a retro effect in video games, but it’s had this enduring nostalgia and air of fantasy throughout. There is an extra layer of fantasy and surrealism in this suggestion of movie-like escapism, an appeal to fiction as a mode for radical optimism.
References
Noah Lawrence-Holder, interviewed by Samuel Fletcher, March 3, 2022.
