Mark Dion, The Thresholds of Knowledge, 2022, found and handcrafted doors, PS 131 Addition, Queens ​

The Thresholds of Knowledge is a site-specific artwork created by Mark Dion for the lobby of the new addition at P.S. 131, Queens. The artwork consists of six mysterious and intriguing doors of varying shapes, sizes, colors, styles, and materials installed along the main lobby wall. The doors cannot be opened although they are constructed to give the illusion of functional openings to real spaces. Each door is labeled with special signage designating an imaginary and fantastical institutional agency: Bureau of the Center for the Study of Surrealism and its Legacy, The Cat and Dog Academy, Seuss Institute for Aesthetics and Metaphysics, Lost and Found, Rachel Carson Center for Environmental Justice, and The Library of Secret Knowledge (authorized access only). These fictional bureaus are comic and odd. They are intended to spark the curiosity of the students, challenging them to interpret the meaning behind each door.

Inspiration for this artwork came when the artist visited the school and encountered a small, green locked door whose original function and purpose was unknown. Dion was struck by how puzzling this tiny door was and how over time, hundreds of children must have speculated and fantasized about what secrets lay behind the entrance.