fear of nudity

Sky is dirty, 2001, BOOm! Age of innocence.

| Henna Timanttimetsä

Who is afraid of ass? Nobody nowadays, question only is what size it is and how it was made. Body needs work as it is looked at and certain parts are looked at. Naturalness which we appreciate cannot be anything but a result of hard work. Still nudity is scary even in art, which has led me thinking what does it mean, the fear, scandalising body, seeing something that cannot be looked at because it reveals something of the viewer, especially female body and showing of it, looking at bodies is telling. The fear is to be ridiculed, seen, judged, losing opportunities because of the shame of being seen, what else? Female body in art is on display but is it for the shock value, beauty the value, for artistic value (what makes artistic value?), difference in how body is displayed and what is desired from this show, exploration of human form, what happens in time to human body and how we perceive it and receive it, how we accept it or not, what else? Menstruation the word and sight is too much to take, is nudity any less? We are judged by what we reveal, what we watch, how we want ourselves to be seen, how others expect we must be seen and how not.

To test limits happens quite easily: limits are somewhat odd.

| Henna Timanttimetsä
Testing begins when we get naked. Nudity is very badly tolerated even though art is filled with nudes, especially women. They usually are reclining nudes or bare-breasted embarrassingly trying to hide their bosom. For me I am naked even though I am fully clothed, this is the gaze and comments I get. Banning nudity online does not make it better, it makes it worse. People who have never seen a naked body seem to be on the edge and falling over, surely Finland has more open culture what comes to nudity, many people are just ashamed and scared: what happens to fragile minds in this world, to those who see naked breasts happens something out of the order, which is intolerable and wrong. To explain why and how I am porn is that I am measured and seen as a porn object always, that is the default setting and why I am for, have always been which I have to constantly fight and it is tiring. To be an underwear model would be an ideal profession for me surely. To lose 5 to ten Kilos would go perfectly with that, wouldn’t it. Taking off clothes does not make the situation much different, only that I can examine what happens and write my reply, contradict in concrete perception on female body which is shamed and too much to take because it is out of the ordinary somehow, I don’t know how that is possible.

Naked female body equals the world going out of its joints, hell breaking loose or falling down as people are dictated by their urges which tells that we are in large sense animals and respect animal urges as frightening posing a threat to humanity. Humans must be fully clothed even in art. How do we explore our body and sex obsessed culture if naked body can’t be put under microscope in public? How do we make an impact which truly changes something in our obsession, fear and loop of old ideas that do not work well in today’s world? How do we show what our culture is all about: women are not allowed to rule their bodies, women do not have right to reflect and see what happens when nudity is and female body is put in centre of the attention? Will you say how sorry you are that women are born porn stars, at least I am, was? It is not enough to say you are sorry, nothing changes. Women must be allowed to set their boundaries themselves. How do we make progress seems very hard and slow when rights of women are in the dirt. This is much about self-governance of one’s body and life.

Vastaukseni Youtubelle joka kieltää alastomat rinnat videoissa ja jäädyttää koko tilin jos osassa videoista on alastomuutta jossa näkyy rinnat:

Videoni ovat taidevideoita ja niillä käsitellään naisen kehoa ja siihen liittyvää ongelmallisuutta, jota tämä kielto on osa eli naisen alaston vartalo on pornograafinen sellaisenaan ja kielletty epäasiallisena, tyyliin imettäminen on julkisessa tilassa heikkohermoisille haitallista. Taiteessa alaston vartalo etenkin naisen vartalo on iso osa koko taidehistoriaa, joten on varsin kummallista, että vielä nykyään koetaan tarpeelliseksi verhota ja piilottaa täysin luonnollinen asia ja vielä naisen itsensä käsittelemänä, miehet ovat yleensä katsojan ja tekijän asemassa. Videoillani ei edes ole seksiä ja tarkoitukseni on juuri viitata taidehistoriaan ja miksi maalaus on eri asia kuin oikea olemassaoleva vartalo. Piirustuksissani kylläkin on varsinaista pornoa, mutta niitä en esitä Youtubessa. Tarkoitukseni on myös tuoda esille tekopyhä kulttuuri joka on hyvin seksi ja vartalokeskeinen ja vihaa naisia. Trollit ja Youtube että Google sen todella tekevät näkyväksi: naisvihan ja tekopyhyyden.

My answer to YouTube for freezing my account for showing breasts in couple of my videos: My videos are art videos and I examine female body and problematical involved what comes to women and their bodies. This ban tells that female body is pornographic as such and forbidden to see in everyday context, for example breast-feeding in public space is for many too much to take. Banning nudity in art is one reason why people have hard time understanding and tolerating nudity as normal. People have hard time with human body even though it is completely natural and should be viewed as such, not something to hide and be ashamed of. Men have been those who look, gaze, comment and view naked women sexually. In my videos there is not sex, there are breasts of mine which obviously are pornographic per se.

My meaning is to have a conversation with art history which is filled with female nudes and what these nudes have been there for on display, what is the sacred and what is abomination, unholy, why painting is different from actual real life image and why nudity is immediately about sex? My drawings and paintings do have sex in them but they too are not for gazing purposes. I examine pornography and culture which is soaked in porn on many levels, so much so it has become normal to pose like a porn star and ask for porn-like sex from a stranger online. My meaning is to question body and sex obsessed culture which still can’t look at female body without it being a disgrace, the body and the woman. It is exactly her which ought to be ashamed not men. It is hypocrisy and misogyny. This culture is kept up by trolls, YouTube and Google especially. It is ok to hurt, stalk and violate privacy but to look at nudity in art is too much to take.

selfie of going to sleep

To think of me, jerk off.

| Henna Timanttimetsä

 

2001, self-portrait on bed

Surely my nude picture is going to explode the internet. I wish. Why do I do this and have done it, is for many reasons. It is the conflict which interests me, it is because nudity on the internet is seen obscene which naturally is a very every day picture in a sense that showing skin is more a rule than exception. In art reclining nude is a concept and an ideal. To see a bare ass, I should probably be wearing a thong and it wouldn’t be as big a crime, is a revelation. Judging of the ass begins immediately. A piece of ass, hmm not big enough, not round enough, not this and that. Looks like a normal white ass. A crack, and then you can go deeper because all is not there, not even close.

To think of me means very often to think of sex, not me as a person who is a complete human being. I am all too often seen as very incomplete and incapable just because of my gender, origin and looks. I am directly associated with sex and measured like a piece of meat. Here the body of mine should be covered because it is a shame, a hurtful picture. I must keep this secret, pornography, eroticism to myself, although it is all over and why I exist. To hide my sex which equals my being, my existence, everything felt in the context of constant sexualization and human relations, is to me hypocritical. Those who speak of me in objectifying terms as I wasn’t there want to have something to stare at, point their fingers at, put someone in shame, ashamed. That is possibly the only thing they can do, feel embarrassed. This picture is about hurt, it is about need to humiliate just as much as it is about laying on the bed after a hot day. It is not about the act of fucking or seduction. It is a reclining nude which usually are seductive images and were pictures of prostitutes, is a classic term in fine art. It is a kind of replica or appropriation. In fine art, which I began to study in my early twenties and saw a lot of reclining nudes of women, nudity is where art begins. It is no wonder art is sexist, sex is a difficult topic and which open sexism I have also

faced like it was something completely organic to the system of art, a game.

SuoMen Performance Red Ochre Splash 1998, image by Sakari Sali

Why is body damaging? Or should the question be rather what kind of mind does not tolerate body?

| Henna Timanttimetsä

Questions to be answered hopefully of what gets damaged by body, who damages what in the process of living with bodies, what is there to be protected? Something similar could be asked by why we allow the self-evident damage to be done by excessive mechanized sexualization in visual universe we inhabit? Something needs to be sold and it is going cheap. Constant intrusion of purity is an attack done by entertainment industry. When art does the same there is a scandal. What other is it about than hypocrisy, living in a new world with old virtues and vices. Where is empowerment and who has it?

Thought of the obscene body, body parts, impropriety, bodily obscenity which is linked to build and controlled civilization, concepts of shame, honor, purity, denial, evil, temptation and sin. Corpus that is indecent all the time even clothed must be punished also all the time to prove goodness and strength of mind, ability to control oneself and capability to decency. Our sexuality which is inappropriate, difficult to the very core is on display everywhere for consuming purposes and is still denied, humiliated and put to shame. Advertising and entertainment is according to creators of business talk empowering and broadening horizons, opening minds to human sexual exploration. Obscenity is in contradiction to nature and to nature in us. The more we put nature to shame and sweep it under the carpet the more problematic the issue gets. To be damaged by act of intercourse, seeing nudity, being nude, having to deal with sexuality and complexity it brings is at large a mighty part of nature within us and part of all. The difficulty to understanding this practical everyday part of life seems to be very common and around we see a very sexualized world.

http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/spinoza-in-a-t-shirt/

As there is thought to be a bond between art and exploring human sexuality, art and the dangerous animal in us, it is strange how forcefully sex is banned in art. Such prohibitions, raising eyebrows in embarrassment tell of artists not having much power within art that public opinion and public image play an important role what kind of art can be displayed and seen in art context. There is a strong stereotype of sexually liberal artist, female and male caricature almost which has been made via art history by telling stories. Liberal, someone who is disregarding social norms, such stereotype which is an image from a dusty book than real life. Strangely I have encountered this stereotype of an artist and it is dusty. Sex and drugs and rock and roll.