halogen logo w:trademark - transparent
halogen logo w:trademark - transparent

Create more life givers that tether to the soul.

Halogen uses visual art to create innovative and proactive resources for suicide prevention in Black and Brown trans communities.

These resources are books, trading cards, documentaries, photography, and more.

At the Borderline of Time

At the borderline of time,

suicide forced me to come face to face with the things I loved most. Importantly, what I loved most about myself - my soul (growth, maturity, decay). We have as much to learn about death as we do life. This is the essential “isness”.

The literal translation of Halogen is “salt-producer” - coming from Greek roots hals “salt” and gen “giving birth to”. Salt is a preservative, a healing agent, a fertilizer, a moving force when things come in contact with it, and the oldest embalming chemical. Halogens are extremely reactive and electronegative - meaning the smaller the atom, the less distance and the stronger ability to attract electrons to it in a bond.

At Halogen, our lifework is suicide prevention in Black and Brown trans communities through visual art. We are creating life givers in story stewardship with gentleness, beauty, and invigorating rawness - the preservation of joy, isness, reunion, and the documentation of another day lived.

For these trans communities, Halogen is a space to explore their soul and the softness, emotiveness, and sweeping genuineness of it. For the viewer, Halogen is an invitation into reimaging their relationship with themselves and a way to experience someone’s soul.

The viewer plays a crucial role in suicide prevention as they’re a witness to the soul and therefore can aid in uplifting and elevating life - becoming life givers themselves.

The closer we are to observing the truth of the soul, the more life we attract.

© Remy Styrk 2024

HALOGEN

I will be traveling the United States, then internationally, to learn about different beliefs on death, the self, and preservation from Black and Brown cultures - documenting through photography, video, ethnography, and interviews.

My findings, and Halogen, will first be introduced through a book and an interactive museum exhibit. The book will be distributed to libraries, nonprofits, therapists, treatment centers, community centers, and more.

Learning about different beliefs on death and preservation can help us center more of what fulfills us and our legacy in the living world - especially around the soul. Eventually, removing the polarities of "life" and "death".

Halogen Sample (2022)

Health Statement🌐

Black and Brown trans people need equitable access to safe, accessible, life-affirming, and expressive resources that promote whole self representation, well-being, and culture. Historically - and notably now - these resources have been systemically obstructed and deliberately diminished.

Halogen is committed to progressing this vital advocacy in a thoughtful, digestible, and growth-focused practice that prioritizes the safety and empowerment of Black and Brown trans communities.

HALOGEN

HALOGEN

HALOGEN

Preliminary Learnings

The soul is made up of three parts - growth, maturity, decay. Death is a process of decay and it’s through growth and maturity, we learn about the decay and its movements.

Culturally, death has many beliefs surrounding it from it being an extension of life in a different age group to the end of everything. Overall, it is a significant factor in how life flows - a significant factor in movement.

EVALUATION AND ASSESSMENT

The main research methodology will be a qualitative methodology. It is exploratory in nature consisting of autoethnography and ethnography. I will use ethnography to document my findings through visual, text based, and audio interviews and observations.

I will use autoethnography and ethnography to document how my own views on death and the soul progress and evolve in my own suicide prevention. I will use this to track my relationship with the people I interview and my experience in doing this research. This acts as a documentation of the documentation.

HALOGEN

Museum Exhibit

To present my findings, I will be doing an interactive museum exhibit to ingrain the feeling of Halogen into the viewer through full body experience - rather than through a website, email, or merely watching a video on a screen. Simultaneously, an open invitation for the viewer to access their own soul.

To reach the point of suicide ideation and attempt is a fully body takeover. The meeting of one’s soul is a fully body takeover. It is a somatic action. The impact is in physically feeling the energy of meeting someone’s soul and truly seeing them. That is the creation of life givers.

There are three rooms in the exhibit all to experience the difference between meeting someone’s soul versus someone’s body.

HALOGEN

Audience + Impact

The target audience is the paradoxically those who haven’t come home to themselves yet. Museum exhibits, gallery shows, and in person art viewings force us to view things differently, even if it’s for a small amount of time.

The impact is sparking a new way of thought about the self that the viewer takes home with themselves to contemplate. It is empowering people to dive in deeper with their loved ones, friends, strangers and view their soul first rather than their body. It is empowering people to uplift the soul to contribute to a more sustainable, passionate, fulfilling life.

By it being in person and interactive, it’s creating new muscle memory and pathways in the brain of this new way of thought.

Alongside the target audience, are those who are curious about the self and those who are focused on studying, analyzing, and learning more about well-being.

HALOGEN

Want to become a partner?

1. I am an individual

    • Do you want to be interviewed and featured in the book?
    • Do you know someone who would want to be interviewed?

Click button below to read and fill out the Call For Participation form.

Click Here

2. Book and museum partners

  • Are you a non-profit, library, therapist, or any community based group that’s interested in having the book available at your location?
  • Do you have museum space that Halogen could be displayed in?

Please click button below to fill out form to be added to distribution partner list, learn more about the project, and stay up to date on release dates.

Click Here

3. Donate

You can donate directly to supporting the project at the Givebutter campaign. Please click button below to go to campaign page.

Click Here

© Remy Styrk 2024

Scroll to Top