Drunk passed out

Kuva | 28 maaliskuun, 201728 helmikuun, 2018 | Henna Timanttimetsä

What is ugly?

28 maaliskuun, 201728 helmikuun, 2018 | Henna Timanttimetsä

In art it is something to pursue and master but to be beautiful is too much, so beauty can be too much and a flaw, to make beautiful objects to sell, things to seduce, have seductive visuals around is to make value (what is seductive? Is it about vanity?), to match people and their spaces, their ideals of what is good and what they are themselves. Art must equal learned beauty standards, standards of the aesthetic or it is ugly and rejected as unappealing. One is left to wonder aesthetics of ours, how it needs to be cultivated and the value of beauty in our culture, whether it exists at all (what kind of beauty) and especially beauty in females, for females or is it for males. What is seen in an instant is more important than what does the sight say in-depth. If art has any value, value is the aesthetics, in the matching not disagreeing, arguing and making one think something else than fitting in. To think why something strikes as beautiful and something as ugly and why we think art should follow basic visual tender spots to be liked. Same goes with people. We have strong views on what we like to see in women and in men on the outside.

This strangely stuck thought follows idea many have about what art should be and also how people are perceived, what beauty is in people and in art, meaning of beauty for us, cost of beauty and effort we see to be beautiful by standards we are set to follow. How beautiful all of this is should be argued by those who are lured by beauty. It is agreeable, standardised, manufactured and known instantly, admired, imitated and wondered, but still to beauty one can do whatever. It is fragile and a threat. It is something to exploit, banish and be destroyed out of a whim and just because it shuns and shadows beauty in you maybe. Beauty is under someone else’s power though it is a possession and to be fucked. It is not power but it is seen powerful. It appeals to our need to feel good, be liked and surrounded by attention beauty must give. Beauty has a way of making instant feeling of good.

In search of a porno monster

Kuva | 24 maaliskuun, 201711 maaliskuun, 2018 | Henna Timanttimetsä

Can you say you are a professional without other people’s approval? Of course, in art.

23 maaliskuun, 20176 maaliskuun, 2018 | Henna Timanttimetsä

What is disapproved professionalism? I highly recommend a kind of disapproval which goes strongly against the establishment and status quo, against those who repeat old truths, truths of theirs. Something out of the ordinary is scary and fear is instant, out of the cult of professionalism, out of the book of solid truths, something to believe in strongly must be put under scrutiny. I strongly disapprove professionalism which sees through corruption, misconduct, sloppiness, carelessness, ignorance, arrogance, unwillingness to make progress, unwillingness to see oneself as student forever such outrage and lack of humility should be disapproved in larger scale there where power to make professionals is and people who can’t take criticism and learn from it. Pedestals oh pedestals, too much respected and feared, way too much.

Disapproved professionalism is something which has moved away from something known, corrupt and repetitious, away from something which sees itself as perfection that can’t be overshadowed, critiqued, put under microscope and be revealed as it is. Unprofessional is to behave badly against other professionals, without a good reason other than those feelings. To look down on and think you are so much better than is highly normal. You want to feel empowered and demonstrate this power position of yours with violence. Maturing is tough, admitting falsehood, doing wrong and failure is difficult, almost impossible. We all have met these kinds of people. They are the menace and sign of ruin of the power structure and themselves. Such thinking costs you, you narrow-minded fools. So never fall into the trap of arrogance and false pride. There is always someone better and other ways of doing. To find out which one’s are the best is a competition where there almost never are winners. To win is what professional competition is all about unfortunately.

To be proud of one’s work is what we should feel, be unashamed, whatever the work. For artist it is a battle especially when the most often thing to come by is rejection, contempt and hate. Art community should by default understand that artists face a lot of discrimination and negative positioning like the artist was the ultimate loser and threat. All you need is family which does not approve what you do. This can’t be too much emphasised. Be empowered and privileged is something many aren’t entitled to. Quality of work is another thing and what is it is the contents not how much your camera cost you and where you are BASED. Those who have reached position which gives them right to look down on do more harm than good. No wonder they are easily hurt, professional emotions are so vulnerable. Most damage they do is at schools. Which I have wondered why assholes and idiots get to teach.

Something which does different from the approved form of status professional? A connoisseur of practise, of thought, ideas and craft, how much does this have to do with feelings? We must feel satisfaction of doing something well and be rewarded for this. We need collective acceptance to be uplifted, respected and valued. This image and game, play or how should I call it, rivalry, fight for right to be a professional, is of course passionate and exclusionary, shutting out those who do not match credentials of the profession. Which is understandable. Sometimes, especially in art, such game of who can and who can’t get interesting proportions and this has got to do with gender a lot and where you come from.

Unnatural feminine, natural feminine

21 maaliskuun, 20175 heinäkuun, 2018 | Henna Timanttimetsä

Natural feminine, unnatural feminine from Henna on Vimeo.

To be partial, incomplete: tragedy or possibility depending on perspective of all humans but when it is involuntary captivity which you yourself can’t influence, it is also tragedy of culture and humanity.

13 maaliskuun, 20175 maaliskuun, 2018 | Henna Timanttimetsä

When it is inappropriate to be as whole as possible, full human (strange concept but let’s use it, maybe there isn’t such a thing when humans are more than just humans, I wonder how nature effects our humanity, what are the limitations for humans is what I am asking and should there be concern becoming more human than human, a design human who is above nature) which for men is there to explore, full, undisputed, lawful, god-given maybe limitless human rights, rights as citizens and users of their voices and spaces: power to use and find out. This is of course how it looks like, men seem more free than women, unafraid but I am sure men suffer from lack of progress what comes to gender stereotypes and what is place of man maybe just as much as women do or maybe not. In my experience in Finland many men suffer when women make progress as they like to improve their lives. It is good that you do your thing but what does it do for me, can be the question. Men do not keep up and don’t understand why they even should because it used to be so cosy, whining and complaining how women are demanding, to whom nothing is enough and one has to struggle to make things good again. To have gotten things easy is what has happened for men compared to women. Pampered people are the most annoying. Who wants easy, it can be boring as hell. What, I disappoint you? Oh too bad.

There is the obvious and necessary need for girls and women be full human beings, it is the so obvious that one wonders why the refusal to accept women as competent persists. Boys learn to appreciate themselves more and think girls are not able to do the same on any level. This thinking shows very clearly, whatever I have done in my life the same repeats. The repetition is what I am afraid of because it is compulsive and terrifyingly there, in repeat something similar happens between people, how unchanged things, thinking and people stay. Living without fear being the definer of oneself is the goal, owner of self-confidence which must show and be put to use. To be a girl without fear sounds still like a Disney girl power blockbuster where pursuing happiness is the goal, of course happiness is good but what is it when it is different for all and the girl must bring happiness to others but herself? Her happiness is happiness of others. She is a good woman when she nurtures and cares for feelings and needs of other people, welfare and comfort is her thing. We should all be what we want and get what we desire again and again to feel happy, so what is stopping us from doing just that.

Fear is there for a reason and we should be quite afraid regardless of who we are. It is a remainder that we are not safe ever. Fear is a companion, it is there to keep women and girls in their places but it also is a scare for those who think they can do whatever to other people, fear of death is for many very real. Outspoken woman is scary because she does something unexpected and unwanted. Do men feel they shrivel and lose their power when women get access to power of their own and access to means? To go against the feeling of being terrified is what must be tried, how to learn not be afraid when there is no reason to be afraid, when to fear the right things. Abandonment, is that what we should fear? Loneliness, shaming, a weapon to use against women over and over again, humiliating, near death experiences and to face your oppressors by refusing to be ashamed and afraid.

Fear of abuse is real because that is what we constantly are, used. Unnecessary denial and refusal to see the potential of women as thinkers, makers and decision-makers within society especially must stop. In family women make decisions which favour boys and follow expectations for a good wife, I hope not. To be a representative of a gender, a specimen to be valued solely via youth, obedience, humility, looks and ability to bring pleasure for others and her pleasure is the pleasure she provides must be yesterday. There is a continuous need for power structures to take power away from females before they understand what kind of power women have and this happens by diminishing and categorising women and girls, their abilities, minimising their value on looks and how the process of value being measured happens and influences on us.

You wish to be a full woman, complete woman, you should support women not bring them down.

’My vulva cupcakes were confiscated’ – a day in the life of an anti-FGM campaigner
Leyla Hussein www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionalsnetwork/2017/mar/13/my-vulva-cupcakes-were-confiscated-but-i-gained-a-sense-of-home?CMP=twt_gu

http://morningstaronline.co.uk/a-23f4-The-girls-and-women-killed-by-their-own-families#.WMcasndDx-V ”In 2006, Rita Banerji, author and gender activist, had begun the unique 50 Million Missing campaign. 50 million is the estimated number of females, from foetuses to adults, eliminated from the Indian population in the course of the last three generations.”

Demonising

3 maaliskuun, 20174 maaliskuun, 2018 | Henna Timanttimetsä

As I see it, it is a normalised way to regulate, isolate, define, rule and be made feel guilty of having done and said something that has broken safety barriers of thought of how women for instance should behave, talk, dress, live etc. This is similar to politics where the ’enemy’ is demonized beyond anything imaginable to be the arch-enemy and evil on earth. It is no wonder Russia has had the label of the enemy nr 1 in people’s mind. How can I like Russia, someone asked me. There is so much to like about Russia and not to like, as there is in anything. One-sided truth is accepted because it is a machine that keeps the story alive, so much so that truth remains to be uncovered for those who go look for it and they have to dig deeper. Demonising works especially well when the enemy is fairly unknown, does things unconventionally and looks different. The one who speaks of the enemy is somewhat trusted, has authority and is known as legal truth teller knowing what is what, is close by and is verbally as visually convincing. demonizing is a basic tool to hold power, keep things unchanged because those who wish to change anything are labeled bad influences and in any way unfit to manage anything, know anything, are unreliable, rotten, threatening and unsafe to be with and be listened to. Weirdos, freaks, punks, anything that goes beyond the normalised and steady balance.

Demonizing has been used through out all times and works for those who do not know better. Anything and anyone who threatens the order of things and ways to think is often put down by the tool of telling a one-sided view, a scare, the truth, and with help of the mass who believe this given truth it can be the only info there is, only info that must be believed or otherwise you will be labeled as well. What to believe and whom to trust?

Women are and have been, as we all know, ones very fragile and poorly protected what comes to being demonized. It still does not take much rumours, dressing and behaving inappropriately to be targeted and monitored by those who themselves think are superior authorities holding mandate to judge and label. Authorities speak among themselves and forward what they see fit. To rebel against doesn’t take more than to have a different opinion and argue forcefully those who should not be argued. Why are there people who think they cannot be argued? Let me know if you know the answer. What is the absolute truth, what is the absolutely correct way to exist? For women it is clearly more narrow than for men and this unchanging state of affairs cannot be objected and forced to change? How weird is that. It takes decades and lifetimes of work and effort.

Punishments for there is devil in her, punishments against her as she lets her demon to have power over her and ruin her purity and good nature, and more importantly her devil contaminates the society and men. Amazing is how old ways of thinking and behaving stick, how labelling people makes society tic and makes hierarchy where those who have stigma are made to fall unless they have an enormous amount of faith and strength to rise above. To be alone in a hostile environment is what such person must endure wherever one goes. To jump into conclusions about people based on appearance, way to talk and what one chooses to do in life is of course something we are bound to do regardless of whether we try not to judge.

Much of pop culture test our limits of acceptable and toy with our conceptions about proper and stability. To play a bitch, witch, sex goddess, nymphomaniac, addict etc. belongs tightly to culture of idols. This is also what art at its best does. It tests and questions authority and our rules of acceptable. To raise abomination, judgement, scandals, abandon safety and conformity.