Welded steel, 18 x 13 x 6, 2019.
A gatekeeper decides who passes, and this one has no body apart from the gate. The upright bars that block the way are also its torso, and the limbs are bent rod welded to the same frame, so there is no one behind the barrier to appeal to. The authority has hardened into the structure. The gaps between the bars are too narrow to enter and wide enough to see through, which is how a gate keeps its power: you can look at what you cannot reach. The face is a square tube, open at one end and empty, turned to the side so that it looks past the visitor.
In West African traditions the keeper of the threshold is someone you can address. Eshu guards the crossroads in Yoruba tradition and is honoured before any other power, since he carries every message between the worlds. The keepers is the mediator who takes the message through.
