Stigma by Design: Aftermath of State care and foster care
A Real life Project from lived experiences
"I dare say that it might have been fairer, more humane if the government, with all its might, had decided to kill me as an almost three-year-old instead of sentencing me to a life of despair, chaos, exclusion and struggle ."
No government has the right to separate parents and children, to use violence against the most vulnerable, and to disconnect them from the world. And then, in later life, to intentionally exclude, hate, erase, and humiliate people for state-inflicted harm, forcing them to live out a life of complex issues without any prospects. No one should be placed in a social vacuum where the state creates the problems, leading to exclusion by society.
These photographs ground the artwork in reality, serving as raw evidence of a lived truth. The project consists of original 30 x 40 cm color prints.
© Jimmy Groen
Click to enlarge
Deported from home:
Blueprint in the baby ward
(Photography Helper Haven, Groningen 1964-1965)
My home III (1965)
pastel drawing from memory created in 1996
Self portrait
Acrylic on paper 1992
(my first drawing ever)
At kindergarten
photography 1967
The opposite gender of man was never woman
Composed objects 2016
My name is Jimmy, Rebirth as 7 -year old
Self -portrait
pastel and mixed media 2004
Safe together
photography 2025
Mama and papa
43 x 56 cm Pastel on paper 2023
Jimmy and his mother
photography 1989
Helper Haven Groningen- Toddler group and three boys 1965
pastel Jim A 1998
The doors of the baby ward in Helper Haven
pastel 1996
Tim and Alex with their own baby
Photography 2025
The Saint of the children's home
Pastel on paper 1997
Actually I am a group of toddlers and two boys
mixed photography 2024
Still there with us
Microscopic photography 2022
Original Photography 1994
Identity Destruction
Mixed digital media with photography 1968, Jim Altanioxi 2014
Window in Helper Haven - toddler sleeping ward
pencil drawing 2005
I am 11.433 pieces of Lego
mixed photography 2022
Tim, and Alex, playing together in the garden
Photography 2022
Smile Photography
(Photograph taken by a photography store keeper in Putten, 1975, cut out from foster mother)
Boy-man
[age- dysphoria]
Identity mix of selfie (52 years old) and pastel drawing of a 10 year old boy 2022
A random suicidal boy (7)
Original photography 1969
Map of Groningen (NL) with Helper Haven 1965
drawn from memory after 29 years
pastel on paper 1994
Identity restoration studio
2021-2023
Institutional Blueprint (Helper Haven, Groningen 1965)
Mixed photography and pastel 1965/ 2024
Plural identity, installation
BFF#13 Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht 2022
We still love you after 33 years (Helper Haven 1965)
pastel on paper 30 x 40 cm 1996
Life in an underground hut, hidden in the forest (1987)
Photography 1987
Stop 50 percent of all invisible violence
Adapted photography from poster UN, 2024
In 2024, it appeared the foster mother, who severely abused three foster children, was honored in 1995 with the State Golden Medal in the Order of Orange- Nassau .(Source Digibron: "Goud, Woudenberg")
Frozen time
Mixed media photography (composition with oil painting/pencil drawing) 2016
Happy later life
Photography 2023
Garbage baby
digital processed 2023
Turn yourself into a boy -child
Photography 2022
Prisoner of the Past
Pastel 2022
Hidden selves
Processed photography 2022
One week before I became their 'animal'
(see "Jasper Heijting, Gepleegd" 2020)
Photography 1979
Equal identities: Tim, Jimmy and Alex
Photography 2025
Gender instruction (for the boygender)
photography 2025
State -Imposed -Caterpillar -Sexuality
Collage 2023
Every day is a magic paradise
Mixed media and processed image 2023
Brian brings the epilator
Photography 2023
Thank you for playing with me, Mowgli
Photography 2023
Gender dysphoria XL: female for the boy- child
pastel 2023
Hidden desire
pastel and original Roman mosaic (ca 200 AD) 2024
created at Art academy Tongeren
Dissociative Life Movie
Composed images 2020
Baby
Watercolor 1995
Creativity, best therapy
Building blocks of equal love
The destiny of a 'boy named Hue'
sketching 2021
Thanks for all you did
The death and lost of twin co- identities Jimmy/ Sterry 1994-2025
processed photograph 2025
Victory...
I am two boys
(but I never know which one is me)
Composed processed photography 2024
63 x 40 cm
The soft touch of love
pastel 2024 50 x 65 cm