Borderlines Labyrinth

Borderlines Labyrinth is a visual map of shifting borders between chaos and clarity, where emotions become structures and each line moves through complexity until meaning comes into focus.

We all live with emotions in motion; mood, self-image, attachment, impulse, memory, and connection shift through time and experience. Borderlines Labyrinth explores that inner terrain in search of clarity, acceptance, self-recognition, and connection, where emotions are allowed to exist side by side.

In researching emotions, feelings, and self-image, borderline surfaced as a lens for the most intensified end of this spectrum. The word also evokes a space between states, where boundaries blur and tension arises between chaos and order, self and other, inside and outside. Within this artwork, nine commonly used markers for borderline patterns function as a framework:

• Pink: Fear of abandonment

• Green: Unstable relationships

• Violet: Identity disturbance

• Yellow: Impulsivity

• Red: Self-harm

• Light Blue: Affective instability

• Grey: Chronic feelings of emptiness

• Orange: Intense anger

• Dark Blue: Paranoid/dissociative symptoms

A viewer may recognize one point, or several. When a number of these experiences come together, they may begin to form a pattern associated with borderline. To show how much variation exists, the word Borderlines is constructed from 256 squares, referring to the 256 possible combinations through which a diagnosis can be made.

Most of us encounter one or more of these points at some moment in life. The work serves as a reminder to care for yourself, remain aware, and seek support when intensity begins to grow.