The Art Critic

I know it is far easier to be a critic than one who creates. And I know that I don't understand some of the subtleties of art, but sometimes, a description or explanation of a hidden meaning just seems to much to bear.

Case in point, these doors. Jean and I went to the MFA recently (see more of the pics here), and I just couldn't get past this...

Look at the doors. Look at them closely. Think about them. Think about what they mean. And now, ponder the description.

Rachel Whiteread
English, born in 1963
Lives in London

Double--Doors II (A+B), 2006-07
Plasticized plaster with interior aluminum framework

Look carefully--this work is more complicated than it seems. These are not doors; instead, they capture the space created by doors. Whiteread made plaster casts of both sides of two doors, then assembled the casts back to back. The finished work combines the spaces on either side of a threshold--fusing entrance and exit into one solid form. The pale doors suggest the ambiguous emotion attached to coming and going and, in the way they resemble funerary slabs, maybe even the fleeting passage of life. (copyright MFA)

Ambiguous emotion?
The fleeting passage of life?

How much pot would I need to smoke to come up with that?

I guess I'm just an ignoramus... but expect some "deep" explanations from my photography henceforth.