A reading room of one’s own
Sarah Schrimpf
A reading room of one’s own
Sarah Schrimpf
“One day, in a dream, I experienced the impossible.
Without a single moment of doubting, I went straight forward
towards a door, put my hand on its handle and pushed.
A huge hall opened up in front of me and I flooded with ease
through the masses of people, even stopping to have a quick chat
with some of them before I reached one of the bookshelves.
I chose a book and made myself comfortable while being welcomed
by the tones and the coloration of the different letters
of my inner world.
It felt so easy. So facile. Not being mute, no shivering inside,
just me as I am. But what about the ‘other me’, the more anxious and inhibited one?
A question keeps turning in my head:
Where lies my real freedom?”
diary page of an unknown author
In my work, I elaborate on the question of how people perceive spaces.
More specifically, I focus on spaces that for some human beings create an overwhelming feeling of anxiety. This narrows down their liberty of action due to the avoidance of specific anxiety-creating places and situations.
Within our collaborative MRes project in and around 'the expanded library’, I had a closer look at the design of a reading room that makes the reader feel at ease and washes away “anxietous” tendencies.
Sarah Schrimpf is a fine artist and graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.
She is currently undertaking an MRes at the Royal College of Art and was shortlisted for the Sony World Photography Awards.
Athenaeum, 2021