OPEN THE DOOR is a site-specific art installation that responds to the long history of women who were psychiatric patients in the Ladies Cottage at New Norfolk’s Willow Court. It is a first-time collaboration with composer Dean Stevenson and transforms the two storey Cottage using over sixty suspended mirrors, a haunting soundtrack and chalk writing on the walls.

Originally built in 1868, the Cottage provided accommodation in private rooms for women from privileged backgrounds who were diagnosed with conditions such as hysteria, melancholia, epilepsy, disobedience and impure thoughts. Treatment featured outdated and often cruel medical procedures such as ice-water baths, but the ladies were also occupied with sewing, needlepoint, cleaning, cooking and, surprisingly, animal therapy with llamas and rabbits.

OPEN THE DOOR was inspired by the fact that inpatient admission to the Cottage required only two signatures, but release required eight. It aims to show that despite the challenges faced by the residents, many were not powerless and had an inner strength that enabled them to open the door to a life beyond Willow Court.

​​​