Nurturing Glass

Nurturing Glass warmly invites the audience into a welcoming, calming environment to experience the influence that color has on you state of mind. After entering the sheltered space through a small passageway and momentarily leaving the turbulent exhibition behind, one is met by loam walls and stained-glass windows, from which colored light settles into the surroundings.

The windowpanes are in different color themes, designed using the theory of color therapy. It is there where the audience can, in their own time, feel what color does to their state of being.

In a series of different works, Linn Doornaar explores the notion of Safe Space. A term she has come to define as a space or status in which one can be themselves and can heal themselves from (daily) troubles. These works investigate the self, social spaces and notions, like alter-ego’s and roleplaying games, and (re) claiming physical spaces to reach the concept of Safe Space. She introduces (small) interventions in physical and social spaces, that aid in making it easier reach that concept. Her most recent work, Nurturing Glass, has been developed alongside extensive research into the effect color has on ones state of mind, and explores the question whether color can be used to better that state.

Safe Space Within

Safe Space within is part of an ongoing series of art works and workshops, that aims to make the audience and participants aware of their Safe Space and helps them create it for themselves. To create a Safe Space the audience was invited to first explore their individual Safe Space, through an interactive installation.

The work consists of four main objects, a stool, a desk, a book with a stained-glass cover and a stained-glass screen placed on the desk, in a pink to blue gradient, and an audio piece. This installation could be found in different public spaces, with different types of audiences.

In later phases of this series of works, the knowledge about individual Safe Spaces that is gained through this work, will be put into an collective of Safe Spaces. In this journey the work explores how the senses can be influenced to nurture yourself (for example with stained-glass), what materials, colors, smells and taste can impact you, how a conversation in itself can function or lack in Safe Space. The experience aims to give space to the following questions: “What requirements does a space, both metaphorical and physical, need to meet, in order for you to practice the concept of Safe Space?” and “How can you comfort yourself, when uncomfortable?”.

Remedies of the Social

Remedies of the Social is an ongoing work exploring (social) spaces in society, in which the concept of Safe Space can be reached. Through the act of costuming, emerging into the name and appearance of another, certain behavioral boundaries diminish.

To explore parts of the identity that aren’t safe to explore in a day-to-day setting, parts of Linn Doornaar’s personality are each turned into different characters and matching costumes. These costumes are handmade by the artist herself. Once finished, they are then brought into the public in safeguarded social spheres, within the fantasy and cosplay community, in which behavioral exploration and costuming is celebrated.

Realm of Healing

Realm of Healing uses game mechanics familiar to Tabletop Roleplaying Gamers, to create an imaginative world from which a story unfolds. The project allows participants to create a world in which they are able to define a culture, geography, moral codes and other political economies. This total freedom makes for a playground in which there is space to experiment with and develop parts of the self, without facing consequences in their daily lifes.

This work is held in different groups and over an undefined amount of times, divided over various sessions. It transforms the phenomenon “Escapism” into a tool. The work has the aim to provide a Safe Space within the group and within the mind, and to take the healing that takes place in these sessions and the lessons about the participants identity into the “real” world.