José García Oliva: Welcome Isn't A Doormat
Printed Nylon Doormat
Dark Brown, white and blue printed text with a rubber backing
115cm x 85cm x 5mm
Printed to order
Edition of 30 (1 AP)
Comes with signed certificate of authenticity
Price: £240 including VAT
Shipping (UK) £15
Welcome Isn’t A Doormat was produced by José García Oliva in collaboration with the Metal team, trustees, and community partners in Liverpool, Peterborough, and Southend, to explore what it really means to be welcoming.
Together, via a series of workshops, we reimagined what a ‘welcome’ space looks like - not just in words, but in action. José led the groups through a paper folding exercise asking us to fold a piece of A4 paper every time he asked a question, for example, fold every time someone’s body language or tone made you feel excluded or you felt the space prioritised certain people over others. The simplicity of folding allowed the conversation to take place, With each crease, quiet stories emerged. The folding offered room for conversation, reflection, and the chance to truly see how spaces can either open up or close down to those within them.
José responded to the words, actions and reflections that emerged from each workshop by creating the doormat Welcome Isn’t a Doormat. The choice of object and material draws on his comments about institutional policies, suggesting that policies should be visible and accessible at the entrance of an institution. They are something to be used, walked on and eventually worn down by time and passage, which signals the need for them to be regularly reviewed and rewritten. As the doormat itself declares, “Bodies change, needs change, and cultures change”, and policies must change too. There’s one doormat for each of our front-door sites, with an additional ‘free’ doormat, to be used wherever our work takes us.
Find out more about the programme: https://metalculture.com/projects/metal-welcome/
This project forms part of Artists for Future Policy , which invites artists to help shape how we work, how we connect, and how we imagine the future.
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About the artist
José García Oliva is our first Artists For Future Policy commissioned artist. He is a Venezuelan artist based in London and his practice addresses hidden socio-political oppressions surrounding migrant and outsourced labour, revealing them through participatory performances and public interventions. His work often unfolds as social provocations shaped by specific sites and the groups he engages with. Grounded in research, his practice explores the intersections of labour, identity, and popular iconography through drawing, sculpture, participatory performance, and writing. Oliva graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2020, and is currently an Associate Lecturer at Central Saint Martins.
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