elitismi

What is art fighting for or is it the institutions that choose the proper fight for the context for the eyes of the privileged and easily traumatized?

| Henna Timanttimetsä

https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2015/10/youth-advisory-board-discuss-censorship-of-art/ ”When we reach a point that art depicting toy to depict a terrorist threat is considered too dangerous for public consumption, one has to wonder what we are really fighting for.”

Censorship is the one that has always been there for me whether it is in form of self-censoring which women do instinctively, or the authority has done the censoring and called it curating or editing or just looking away. Usually it is disapproving without discussion and show of contempt for the artist. Something that must be only perfect has a perverse side to it. Art is not about depicting a perfect world, perfect people looking perfect doing perfect things and being great, only great and wonderfully glorified. World glorified, artist glorified, art something that matches the interior and appeals to aesthetic taste is a trend which is forcing itself still as we are given big names and stars, proper contents packaged, expensive gladly, not bad light on rulers, not politics, not ugliness, not cursing, business-likeness which has taken the art world is obvious. We are here to sell and please.

So art on menstruation, female genitals, sex, pornography, bombs, terrorism, art world pretense and phoniness, cleaners, garbage, dirt, prostitution often are banned, scrutinized or at least artist’s mental health is questioned and her intentions. Those topics may be more suitable for male artists too, but still daring. He is so daring and brave, she is just odd and dangerous. To say the word clitoris aloud is difficult, so I am interested why so, to watch pornographic images which are on the net for all to see displayed in art context cause a stir. Scandal is why art scene is so conservative, still sexist and prudish, still perverse. I also wonder what kind of people art is for and what is expected of art, why these expectations do not match with desires of an artist to explore openly, discuss and show what world is like.

For artist to do what is expected is dangerous.

Identiteettipurkajaiset

| Henna Timanttimetsä

Onko identiteetti jotakin jonka jokainen kohdallaan varmasti tietää ja tunnistaa, osaa sanallistaa ja selittää tarkasti ja kertoa mitä identiteetti hänelle ja maalle tarkoittaa? Mikä on kansalaisen identiteetti, suomalaisen naisen ja miehen identiteetti, lapsen identiteetti ja mitä niitä nyt onkaan, ihmisiä. Identiteetti on olla joku, persoona jolla on minä. Henkilö joka kuuluu useimmiten useaan ryhmään ihmisiä käytöksensä, syntymäpaikkansa, sukulaistensa, ystäviensä, työnsä, koulutuksensa, ihonvärinsä, sukupuolensa, seksuaalisensuuntaumisensa, ikänsä, uskontonsa, mielipiteidensä, pukeutumisensa, valintojensa kautta. Identtiteettinsä jokainen on osin valinnut ja osin ei. Identiteetti on siis hyvin monimutkainen rakennelma josta me muodostumme ihmisinä, jonka me itse muodostamme monin eri tavoin aktiivisesti ja passiivisesti, joten ajatus siitä että ulkoa tuleva ihmisryhmä voisi muuttaa jonkin maan asukkaiden identiteettejä, meidän kansallista identiteettiä on täysin absurdi. Suomen kansallinen identiteetti on minulle itsellenikin mysteeri, joten en tiedä mitä identiteettiä tässä halutaan suojella ja millaiselta uhkalta tarkalleen ottaen. Suojella siltä että tuo suomalainen identiteetti jonka me näemme niin yhtenäisenä joka on niin kovin monelle sama on helposti turmeltavissa ja yht’äkkiä muuttumassa valtavassa paineessa ja pelossa islamistiseksi, naiset huntupäisiksi ja päiväjärjestys niin että kaikki rukoilisivat viisi kertaa päivässä, niinkö? Sen olen huomannut että muutoksen aikaan saaminen on äärimmäisen hankalaa parempaan päin, mutta kun on saatava huononnus aikaan se tapahtuu hyvin pikaisesti. Kuinka käy identiteetille sitten? Miten paljon kansallisia piirteitä ja rajoja tulisi suojella ja keneltä voi kysyä ja mitä niissä on suojelemista, etenkin kansallisissa piirteissä? Olemmeko muita rehellisempiä, mutkattomampia alastomuuden suhteen, hauskempia, fiksumpia, parempia pukeutumaan, omaperäisiä ja kekseliäitä? Kun ulos katsoo tulee muita adjektiiveja mieleen. Hei Suomi, kannattaa katsoa peiliin ja tutustua itseensä ihan ajan kanssa. Itsetutkiskelu ei näillä leveysasteilla ole kovin suosittua ja terapiassa käynti on hulluuden merkki. Huonosta itsetunnosta kertoo myös tuo huoli ulkoisesta uhasta joka tulee ja nappaa, jos ei olla muurina edessä.

Suomalaisuus on edelleen myyttinen sankaritarujen ja voittojen huumaantunut ja humaltunut joku, todellakin joku tuntematon jota ei uskalla tervehtiä saati katsoa silmiin. Outo on outoa. Suomalaisuus edelleen pyörii samankaltaistensa joukossa ja pienissä sellaisissa, syö samanlaista ruokaa ja pukeutuu samalla lailla. Sellaista identiteettiäkö nyt halutaan suojella? En minä ainakaan. Se suomalaisuus jonka minä tunnen kaipaa pikaista ravistelua ja happihyppelyä, raitista ilmaa koska tänne tukehtuu. Ai suomalainen vienti ei vedä. On se totta tänne kaivataan läpiveto että saataisiin lähimmäisen rakkaus esiin jos se paikalliseen identiteettiin mitenkään on kasvanut, edes piiloon. Piilossa on suomalainen identiteetti kasvanut kovin kummalliseksi.

Cult of genius (go wax your balls or something)

| Henna Timanttimetsä
Giant, great, unique thinker, not usually small, fragile, insignificant or female but big, self-assure and male. Genius has something to do with Western success, dominance, power, knowledge, fame and obsession, adoring and idolizing. Idol who is someone special above the rest, someone who has special skills, abilities and way to present oneself in specific manner. Exceptional character who seeks to find perfection tirelessly, and truth, find something invisible which is and has been beyond most people to imagine and see. Impossible made possible, genius an exceptional person lifted up who has been able to reveal a new way of making, thinking and seeing, something unseen, unheard, unconventional, unimaginable, unsolvable and revolutionary. To be genius means one has to be creative, do creative work and go over limits that society has set. That maybe is not enough. To go further, go far and find the simplest solution usually on your own. It is a manifestation of power of one individual. One can do something new and innovative without being a genius. It has to be declared. Genius the personality trait as it is something we know when we think about it is something scary still. There is a thin line between crazy and genius, intellectual superiority that is almost too much for human brain to tolerate. What cult of genius expects is a freak of nature.
It is usually status given by experts who identify and acknowledge, have evaluated and recognized work of a genius. To declare oneself genius is a sign of lack of humility and modesty. Placing oneself somewhere where it is almost impossible to go but one has to take the step of doing so without shame for it. Who dares to challenge this person, who dares to say such a thing? No one but a full-blown narcissist, self-obsessed lunatic and megalomaniac. Success and being noticed is part of the cult, of course. One of a kind mastermind who know worth of oneself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genius_(mythology) Genius has spirit, divine guidance and protection so it is not false to speak about cult or religion in the context of genius. Must be due to Christianity genius has become to embody a man, man’s ability to think, do, invent and master.
https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/video/artist-marilyn-minter-is-pretty-dirty I have placed this interview of Marilyn Minter here because she refers herself to being a genius, a genius who creates something extraordinary, genius an exceptional thinker, a mind analytically and intellectually superior. What other would you say when you are asked are you a genius? First of all one has to have a lot of balls to give such a statement and yet what a banal thing to say. Is genius a bumper sticker? Interesting is how cult of genius seems to be a very American phenomenon. What kind of intellect is American genius about and is their criticism in Minter’s statement towards the royalty of intellect which is close to pop culture? How intellect manifests itself in a genius and in society today when anyone can be a genius?

 

 

How to be

| Henna Timanttimetsä
I can think what is the most important thing for me to be, well there are many. Then there is society’s pressure to think for me which is pretty powerful  (well, people around tend to do the judging more than society as a structure actually) and which pressure is the main reason for all identity and self issues people are having. What society can ask people to be and how them to live must be to be decent, respectful, making and thinking individual, what else as there seems to be constant turbulence especially concerning how women are viewed, treated, how they treat each other and themselves. Problematic of pleasing, fitting in, doing the right thing, being the right kind of person sound like juggling and a very narrow spot to live in. It is interesting how we can now have and knowingly take position of creating a self-therapeutic nonstop flow in public and share all what we will and feel good about it as all people around tend to do similar kind of sharing of private life moments, problems, thoughts, worries etc and we get feedback for doing this sharing. Most important thing is to find the strength to be exactly who you want to be and not what other people push you to be. Confessional writing is important in this regard as we notice that there are so many people who struggle with the very same issues. To find this out is a surprise as is the fact of how long it can take to grow up, how much one can learn and change, in other words stand on your own meaning know what you want and go after that, not after what someone else wants you to be and do.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/122840/confessional-writing-feminist?utm_content=bufferf982a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer”Our culture loves to gawk at the ugly side of women—to peer at stars without their makeup and publish their un-Photoshopped images, to put women’s looks under a microscope until every blemish surfaces. ”
http://www.eater.com/2015/9/15/9326775/the-kitchen-of-the-future-has-failed-us”There are a few easy answers to that question. The people who are in charge of designing the future right now are a homogenous group. Futurism, as a field, is dominated by men: two-thirds of the roster of the Association of Professional Futurists is male, as is 77 percent of the World Future Society’s. And it’s no secret that the technology industry, the other field generating many of these futures, is struggling with gender inclusivity as well.”

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/09/16/ecuador-vs-chevron-by-way-of-canada/

 

Asiantuntijadiktatuuri: suomalainen hiekkakasa

| Henna Timanttimetsä

Taide on hyvä esimerkki asiantuntijadiktatuurista, jossa ’spesiaalitietämyksellä’ (hyvin oletettu) on ehdoton valta ja jossa suhteilla ja sopivalla supliikilla pärjää (manipuloimalla), kenties myös seuraamalla trendejä, voi johonkin asti pärjätä etenkin, jos ei ole omia ideoita, koska kaverit tuntevat toistensa, spesiaalitietämyksen ja maun ja muutenkin niin hyvin tuntevat, siinä on suhteellisen turvallista sukkuloida, kun kavereita ollaan. Maulla, sukupuolella ja arvoilla on suuri osuutensa mitä tapahtuu ja miten tapahtuu, kun taiteesta puhutaan, on kuitenkin riskaabelia lyödä jotakin ehdottomasti läpi hyvänä, koska vallassa oleva asiantuntija-makutuomari niin sanoo, koska silloin jotakin samankaltaista, mikä taiteessa on tapahtunut monesti, toistuu ja mikään ei lopulta muutu. Siksi toisiaan suojeleva tiimiytyminen ja klikkiytyminen on korruptiota ja väärin taidetta, taiteilijoita ja katselijoita kohtaan eli lopulta toisiaan suojeleva joukko huomaa olevansa läpeensä degeneroitunut ja umpikujassa. Joku tärkeä ajatus ja filosofinen pointti on tässä kohtaa jäänyt järjenjättiläisiltä ymmärtämättä, että taide ei palvele vain tiettyä eliittiä, joka haluaa olla kaapin päällä, koska on omasta mielestään erinomainen ja hyvä, koska se ei ehkä enää riitä. Taide on elähtänyttä juuri silloin, kun se on henkilöpalvontaa ja sopivaa, kuten esimerkiksi kuvanveisto- ja maalaustaidetta virastoissa huomanneet ovat pistäneet merkille. Käymme kuitenkin ankaraa keskustelua, koska niin tehdään ’avoimessa’ ja ’suvaitsevassa’ taideskenessä (kaikkia mielipiteitä ei tietenkään tarvitse suvaita), jossa kuitenkin asiantuntija-makutuomari on ylimmäisenä auktoriteettiasemansa ja verkostonsa johdosta, jota kukaan ei kehtaa kyseenalaistaa, koska vaarantaa samalla oman etenemisensä alalla. Siksi on suuri riski ryhtyä kovin sanoin kritisoimaan systeemiä, joka suojelee ja pitää kovasti arvossa asiantuntijoitansa ja makutuomareitansa, jotka ovat myös kavereita, kuten myös suuria taiteilijoitansa jotka nämä asiantuntijat asemaansa ovat osin onnistuneet saamaan. Kun venettä keikuttaa on keikutettava kunnolla saadakseen äläkän aikaan, koska muuten mitään ei tapahdu. Heilutettava niin, että kaikki näkevät, koska muuten asioita sumplitaan sisäisesti ja hissukseen. Kuka nyt yhtä naista uskoisi?

On syytä epäillä, että yhteisössä, jossa kaikkien on tunnettava kaikki, jotta pääsee jonnekin, jotakin on pahasti pielessä. Tämän voin kuvataiteilijana sanoa: systeemi joka suojelee ihmisiä, jotka toimivat opettajina, joita ei alan kehittäminen kiinnosta ainoastaan oma palkkapussi ja asema, on perinjuurin korruptoitunut ja epäoikeudenmukainen, eikä taidetta eteenpäin vievä. Jos ala, joka niin kovin ottaa kantaa ja on huolissaan ihmisoikeuksista ja sen sellaisista, ei piittaa pätkääkään alansa työoloista, palkkauksesta, taideopiskelijoiden terveydestä, johon esimerkiksi seksuaalinen häirintä vaikuttaa, alan seksismistä ja kiusaamisilmapiiristä (jota esimerkiksi hiljentäminen ja seläntakana puhuminen on) yleensä, on se melko lailla yhdentekevä ja tuhoon tuomittu oksa. Se, että opettajaksi pääsee, kun on tunnettu taiteilija, ei tee taiteilijasta opettajaa, valitettavasti. Kun kuulee uhkailua, että virkailija tuntee taiteilijoita ja laittaa sanaa eteenpäin, jotta syntyy tietynlainen vaikutus, niin onhan se perin merkillistä tai että sinua ei tähän kouluun oteta, kuulee jo hakutilanteessa (vai mitä kuraattori Helenius?). Näin jälkikäteen ajateltuna naurattaa perkeleesti, eikö totta.

Jos perseenpuristelijoiden ja äijäilyn aikakausi olisi jo suosiolla ohi tälläkin alalla, niin ehkä jotakin edistystä oikeasti tapahtuisi. Vielä lisäksi, että kun on virkailija, on saanut viran taidealalla, se ei tarkoita auktoriteettiasemaa taiteessa. Olet taiteen palveluksessa, taide ei palvele sinua. Raha ja asema helposti sokeuttavat ihmisen, etenkin kun puhutaan niinkin suuresta ja mahtavasta kuin taide. Näennäinen koko ei aina kerro suuruudesta. Taiteilija on melko pieni nappula, jota kovasti halutaan painella, jos taiteilija antaa ja haluaa nöyristellä päästäkseen urallaan eteenpäin. Pitää olla sen verran selkärankaa, että tekee toisin, sanoo vastaan, ja ahdistelusta ilmoittaa ylemmälle opettajalle, ei luokkakavereille. Terveisiä TAMKiin. Kiinnostavia maalauksen opettajia teillä.

Taste of luxury for mass of tourists (Let’s make love at love museum and make love babies who love art. Oh let’s. I hope the surveillance camera is on.)

| Henna Timanttimetsä
Tourists bring luxury with them as they spend their money and experience luxury as they do traveling. This is the assumption when tourism is seen as a good thing for a nation and for tourists, them as something who wish to be educated and given experiences, events, emotions, impressions, senses, thrills and so on. To travel is to broaden one’s mind and is seen a good thing for the individual for the economy of places where people want to go. Luxury of telling what one has seen and experienced, where one has been and what one has done is big part of joy and privilege of traveling. Being able and afford to enjoy time at distant location where there are lots to see or to get drunk and have so much fun, be somebody else than what one is normally in everyday life. To promote tourism as a good thing and a money-maker is cynical, consequences are also something else than just good and fabulous. The claim that traveling is a good thing itself broadening minds and educational activity is true to a certain point, up to a point. Climbing a mountain is heavy and metaphor for conquering something bigger than oneself, beating obstacles on one’s way to the top. Such status symbols as tourism bring we all should be able to afford and when we don’t we do not belong to group of privileged. It is good to travel and one is ignorant if one does not do it. A show off and mostly nothing else but mountain of garbage.

Have you ever been, have you seen and experienced kindness of local people there, oh, you should go. All the things we should be doing as contemporary civilized people. Been there, done that is trophy culture of people who do not have anything else to boast about. In this picture idea of museums bringing in tourists somehow fits but somehow really does not. Museum for who exactly, for tourists.. give me a break.

Holding on to entitlement. What can be called a minor human error?

| Henna Timanttimetsä

Definitions by which we move on: we must know on what kind of ground we stand, what there is to know about the world around (we should be interested), we must define ourselves what is it that we can achieve as ourselves finding the best in ourselves, what we are compared to environment and other people and what we can do with knowing where we come from. We are defined by others for the same reasons, goals and looking for meaning; where those others stand in relation to us. Knowledge is the key to any entitlement, any relation and standing, at least this I hope. What do we know then? What kind of resource knowledge we have is and what kind of knowledge is available? Mission gets complicated when we begin to evaluate what is worth knowing, what do we want in the end and where do we move with the knowledge we have, what does it do to us and what do we do with it.

Something one is entitled to, to know, to learn, to speak, to work, to grow, to live, to breath, to feel, to move, to explore, to find, to lose, to sleep, to rest, to imagine, to invent, to play, to be a child, to be what one desires to be. What can we say we are entitled to are those mentioned and things people have to know themselves without putting anyone down but to lift up. When we feel entitled is when we enjoy having something, is it extra or is it because we are humans and therefore can and will? What is too much entitlement? We tend to take many things for granted, things which are granted to us as privileges in a world of crises and wealth distributed unequally but something we truly need like education, continuous schooling and work. We have an obligation to educate ourselves and our children, find a way to make a living and place of living. To say to have a life is to live a fulfilling life with joy and curiosity. How many can say that? We should be entitled to be able to feel joy, feel joy of living as we are privileged to be living this exact time on Earth. Still it seems to be difficult for many to be content, grateful and have feeling of joy for what one has. Is that the basic dilemma of human existence, discontent, unhappiness and emptiness? Not having enough ever or not having what that other person can have, not being able to be happy for someone else and not being able to be content for life as it appears to be.

Problem can be that one cannot let go of the old because it was the entitlement to that person, a possession, to let go and have others have the same entitlement and joy. Problem of sharing something good, especially material good, material comfort, not riches but security.

 

Remote to where you are standing.

| Henna Timanttimetsä

Interesting dilemma of where we are and in what kind of relation our position is to our existence, what our breathing and living in a place means to us and to a place. Geography either impresses or feels like a nuisance and a turn off. A wasteland, a desert, city of millions of people, an island what kind of interest do we have to a place often is self-interest, a place that means something to us. A meaningful place has a story, history (there is not a place that would not be investigated, named, found, made to state human interest). What is a place of interest for a person is what that person wants and how life of that person connects with places. Also in art places are important. We are not without place, we cannot be without connection to a place, to places usually in plural. Art is situated, placed, set and artists are based living and working somewhere and it is mentioned to help situate the artist to a scene and mindset. What kind of impact a place has on a person, her/his work and what is thought of that person as an artist in a place and outside a place is play of imagery and imagination, system of values, something almost impossible to change. Connotations, images in mind, assumptions, dreams and knowledge true or false create an interest. It is assumed it is more interesting career-wise to have an exhibition in a certain place for certain kind of crowd to see it. Exhibition has to be written about for it to have a life. Art usually has to be experienced by people, seen and talked about, big is more visible than small but silence is scary and loud.

Size, heavy or light, and position, a place near or far where should we go and what to do there? What makes an interesting story, what makes a valuable place?

beauty of a fence

What does it mean to be working class? It has meant things taken for granted and any variation to those things is still intolerable.

| Henna Timanttimetsä

What kinds of characteristics class has is a story of people belonging to a class and what is outside of a class. Point being there is inside and outside of class between which communication is little, formal and suspicious. They think they know each other, they think they know all. Meaning of class awareness has meant different things for working class than for the middle class, who have been more content in quality of their lives, this is my conclusion. Working class wishes to imitate the middle class trying to match the quality of life for which they are entitled especially what comes to schooling, healthcare, day care etc. Middle class are those who feel their material needs are met, their offspring has chances in life to make something of themselves to follow needs of their own, or their families, all people belonging to this class have more chance of being content in their lives and see a brighter future, healthy and prosperous. There definitely has been a phenomenon//way of making things happen, that can be called looking after each other within a class, a solidarity between members of the same class, an awareness of similarity, knowing people and standing on the same level which connects and which form of communication can be difficult to attain when one comes from another class, higher or lower.

Reality of classes, conflicts, barriers and contempt between them which historical massive load is upon us, on us and within us is something inescapable. My class, which I was born to, has been a working class continuation in several generations. I come from very strong idea of work being the most important factor in life, an honorable thing and measure of worthiness. Schooling has not been seen as important although to me personally it was the most important thing. I lived to learn and still do. Therefore it is odd in my family that someone studies as much as I have (it has been possible) and hopefully I still will. Not to mention that one is an artist which is not work at all unless one is famous and makes money and it was said to me artists come from different class than I do, but that probably is not working class related thought. It is class and gender related issue that my capabilities are questioned over and over again. There has been strictly work for men and strictly work for women, strictly work for those others who come from different background. It is as if I am escaping something I cannot escape even though I do not escape I create. I don’t continue in a circle which to me is a dead-end.

Reality of struggle, old-fashioned thinking of the working class is very much build in me as background, fear, suspicion, disbelief and guilt, root and as a political view to life. Politics has always been an issue and everybody has had an opinion, not sure if the case is so anymore. Indifference seems to be the case. Basic idea for working class is to find a job, get married and have children. It is the traditional way in which nothing much changes but the society around to which we must adapt. That is also the breaking point of working class: difficulty to adapt to new thinking, difficulty to absorb new ideas, people and thinking, difficulty to see bigger picture, difficulty to adapt that their children do not want the same anymore, that their children are not extensions to their parents and do not continue something that was but make history of their own. Maybe it is something all classes share and that is why they are classes, divided and separate. Thoughts of worthlessness or superiority are often passed on and they drag us down.

One part and problem of working class is and has been low self-esteem of which scare, doubt and refusal to accept new tell. Fear to be active part of change, create movements and become change via education, open-mindedness and being curious. There is curiosity within working class but there is also inability to look further and beyond oneself, inability to think oneself as something else. Panic over losing one’s job and not being able to think alternatives for oneself is one example of being fixed into position given and not believing in oneself, not being able to think oneself as capable for many things but stuck without possibilities. Working class has been put down this way and they put themselves down. They who have power have made people think they should be scared and continue history of fear. Work is basic building brick of working class. Those who are scared for losing their position and wealth want people who do not believe in their possibilities, do not rebel, do not try to find alternative choices for themselves and don’t jeopardize power of those who stand on higher ladder. Now maybe even more as work is scarce and hard to find threats play an important role. One detail is striking, how long it takes for working class to rebel, rebel for what cause should be a question and they should find an answer (rebel not for themselves only), understand that they are the key in changing anything in the end. It is probably easy to continue the same work, the same daily routines, watch the same TV-shows, see the same people and read the same news papers. How to survive the shock when people lose these familiar things in their lives? When it is not possible to drive to work, when there is no work to go to, when we have to change what we eat, what we do, think, what we wear and what we talk about, not because we cannot personally afford but because ecologically our life style is unsustainable and wrong? Working class macho life style usually looks down on anything that hints to hugging trees and saving the environment. Gays and artists are the worst and to them there is a distance kept which works as a safety zone. Reluctance to understand and take part could not be more clear. To say we don’t understand also means we don’t even want to try. Time of no TV, no malls as we are used to having and no private cars maybe?

Does the UK really need ’wealth creators’ and ’hardworking people’?

MATT BOLTON 24 June 2015 https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/matt-bolton/wealth-creators-hardworking-people-and-delusions-of-social-democracy

https://peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2015/06/14/towards-a-real-fusion-of-socialism-and-ecology/?blogsub=confirming#subscribe-blog”From its side, since its fundamental critique is technical (we have a better science, ecology), not political, the green movement has failed to engage the working class at all. Both sides sit entrenched in their own theories and snipe at each other.”