Ricky Doornbos is a documentary artist with a keen interest in cultural history, blending this passion with his expertise in education. Juggling roles as an artist, art educator and primary school teacher, language has emerged as a central theme, a dynamic link connecting overlapping professions. As an artist, Ricky's work is a mixture of visual exploration and research of diverse cultural narratives. Simply put: both visual language like arts, our various cultural histories and 'traditional' educational forms of language such as reading, listening, speaking and writing are all ways of telling stories. Ricky believes that by exploring and expanding what we mean by language, we can discover a more diverse and meaningful way of expressing ourselves.
Das Rosarium - This research examines Soviet monuments and graves in and around Berlin, Germany.
When visiting Berlin years ago, Ricky was struck by these monuments and how they somehow feel both entirely relevant as well as strangely misplaced. After World War II, it was enshrined in the so-called two plus four treaty that Germany is obliged to maintain Russian war memorials and graves in perpetuity. While the city of Berlin is more vibrant than ever before, being a cultural hot-spot for people all over the world, these often dramatic Russian memorials are eternal, never to be removed from the Berlin landscape.
In the midst of the current geopolitical conflict with Russia, they stand as reminders of the past while also re-shaping perceptions of the present and future.
Aikido & Spatial Design - Together with guest teacher Tycho van der Meulen, I have designed and performed a special workshop for first year Spatial Design students at the wonderful (and hidden) gym at Willem de Kooning Academy.
Tycho is a skilled Aikido teacher. Aikido is a Japanese martial art and self-defense system in which the force of the attack is used as a basis for the defense. Aikido focuses on the development of physical and mental balance and operates with a strong sense of spatial awareness. From this perspective, we have derived a special program for Spatial Design students.
Spatial Design is about designing spaces and questioning how people interact within those spaces. Aikido is also about designing spaces. How do you create a safe physical and mental space for yourself and the people around you? This workshop questioned the concepts of Spatial Design from various directions, offering students new perpectives within their professional field.
The Wanderers - For this collaborative project, Ricky worked together with conceptual designer ManHong Lam at the Tenjinyama Art Studio in Hokkaido, Japan. Point of departure is a 1936 grand tour undertaken by the Japanese Emperor in Hokkaido. It was a large scale military exercise and Imperial propaganda tour in order to bind the local people of Hokkaido to the Empire. It also was to be the Emperors last tour with the divine status as Ikegami, or living kami (God). For this project, ManHong and Ricky investigate how both photography and design helped shape a mythologization proces that is strongly connected to the traditional Shinto belief.
The project was generously supported by CBK Rotterdam.
Live for the Future, Long for the Past - Live for the Future, Long for the Past researches various elements that capture the current times of Hong Kong. Hong Kong’s present situation is both complex and frail. Since 1997 it became part again of China after a period of 99 years being a British colony. Hong Kong has been promised a transitional period of fifty years where it has it’s own government, independent from the communist Chinese system. However, over the last years, this agreement has been brutaly broken by the CCP. In Live for the Future, Long for the Past, Ricky traveled all over Hong Kong documenting it’s people and it’s landscapes. In the work, Ricky tries to portray a picture of a place that has a sense of nostalgia and that superficially almost looks romantic. Yet, behind the surface there are mayor political and social transitions taking place, greatly impacting Hong Kong’s daily life and it’s future. The photo's taken witin this ongoing series are all taken before the controversial Hong Kong security law in 2020 took effect. In 2024, Ricky will go back to revisit and document for the project.
Space Alphabet - An assignment that I designed and executed together with a fellow artist for groups 4 and 5 of elementary school.
Take a good look around the classroom. Everything consists of shapes. Just like with constellations, if we connect the 'dots', we can find letters. Each group will be given two rolls of painter's tape to make the connections. We will tape off the letters we find to make them visible. We're creating our own constellations (letters) in our own galaxy! (the classroom)
Space Helmets - Wdka students posing with their designs for the assingment 'Space Helmets'.
Here, I guided students through the design process using targeted cooperative work forms in which students, through short collaboration processes, arrived at new insights and elaborations of their results.
Mary - During my visits to Hong Kong I met an elderly lady and her maid, Mary, a Philippine domestic helper. Foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong are domestic workers employed by HongKongers, usually families. The vast majority are woman from the Philippines and Indonesia. Together they make up for about 320,000 foreign domestic helpers, performing household tasks such as cooking, serving and child care. They are required by law to live in their employer’s residence. Since Hong Kong has the most expensive land per square meter than anywhere else in the world, these houses are usually very tiny, leaving hardly any space for privacy between employers and employees. I was able to live among these two ladies, documenting their daily lives.
Design your city on a new planet (part one) - In this lesson, students from group 4 and 5 in primairy school progress from studying medieval cities to envisioning a futuristic metropolis. Utilizing the "See, Think, Wonder" method, they analyze historical cityscapes, fostering critical thinking and observation skills. Transitioning to the present, they examine modern urban environments through the lens of Rotterdam.
Design your city on a new planet (part two) - Through guided discussions and hands-on activities, students explore the factors influencing urban development. They then engage in city planning activities for a fictional city on another planet, emphasizing logical organization and creativity. The lesson aims to cultivate students' understanding of urban evolution while nurturing their ability to think critically and imagine future possibilities by exploring the sights they encounter daily around them.
..Something that flies as far as possible - For students at the Willem de Kooning Academy, I designed various assignments and exercises. Characteristic of these was that they were all focused on creating a safe and pleasant pedagogical climate (getting to know each other, learning to collaborate, listening, and critically reflecting on each other's work), or they were intended as an addition to their regular curriculum within the Spatial Design program. Here, I challenged students through workshops and assignments to think and create outside of their familiar patterns. A cross-disciplinary perspective on the concept of 'language' was always a common thread.
In this example, I challenged students to design something 'that flies as far as possible' within 15 minutes. Each person was given a sheet of A4 paper as material. The result was that everyone either folded a paper airplane or made a paper ball. One student designed a letter to be sent by mail to Asia. Through the assignment, students realized that it didn't dictate 'design a paper airplane or make a ball', but rather that they were free to work beyond conventional thinking and designing. In the photo, the students are seen testing their designs in the school's hallway.
