The most interesting thing is how Fine art especially accepts trends without any criticism and schools and universities teach these newly created doctrines like the word of God. Fine art thrives with trends like fashion does and doesn’t think or know any better, which makes one think how legitimate their teachings and clicks are. How effective in changing societies more just Fine art is, one can and should doubt. Making those luxury goods, are we now? Social justice is also a sellable object. You are on the right side, the side of the oppressed and that is what media loves to be too. Many artists face this reality as they are forced to think and say the right thing and if they don’t, they are silenced, removed from sight and their reputation is smeared. How just and wise that is, one must and should ask, especially the institutions that wash themselves clean with social justice. You are doing advertising, not social justice.
Bodies online is a series of drawings I have been making since 2015 focusing on female bodies, what women do with their bodies online, what are the discussions surrounding body, sex and body image and does fine art have a role. I do draw male bodies and body parts occasionally as many tend to photograph their penises and upper torsos in bathrooms and send the pictures: there is always someone at the receiving end wondering what does it mean this all. Do you examine yourselves or the reactions? I obviously am critiqued for putting openly pornographic images on my site in forms of drawings and paintings calling the other series In search of a porno monster. Fine art is not primarily for children and I don’t self censor nor think fine art should move to the direction of family friendly approach. I have something to say perhaps or it is an attempt to organise my thoughts around current obsessions and impacts of these desires people don’t prohibit themselves and assume all enjoy and want the same things. I am interested in what people think first, not what moves in their pants, but naked body is interesting to me too in many ways. Firstly, it is the number one topic in fine art or from where studying begins, studying of humans and human form. There are people who are allowed to process the issue of nakedness, body shapes and sex in their work, but I am not one of those for some reason. I traumatise people. Sorry, not putting labels on, I won’t do so. Filtering reality makes boring results and interesting question is how scared people are and of what things exactly. As the phenomenon of openly sexual content pushes itself to tv and advertising and the thought is to promote freedom, cashing in (this is how), openness, shamelessness, craving for scandals nevertheless as all are not as open, they are expected to get triggered, body positivity and what not, wanting to make as big bucks as possible, get a lot of viewers and becoming instantly famous, and this is a good message to invade our viewing time and things we watch, like it or not? Ok, good taste is lost as is good quality content undervalued. Who gets empowered? Not me. Then there is the question of success and what is success. Is it the same as fame? Do we measure success in money and visibility? Oh, yes, likes.
There are feminists who are for porn and sex work and think these are work just as anything else. You are selling your body in OnlyFans? Sure, they are work and internet is full of it, there is a market, which just keeps on expanding and is only to make a fortune as easily as possible, and so is plastic surgery, self-image and mental health problems get fixed by fixing the body? These fixes are perplexing and at the tip of fingers. That is help? Well, a doctor does it, so it must help. With this ease of things happening, we do create a lot of problems and we like looking healthy and fit the felt innerself, the person inside must come out and play, show herself. So, what are bodies online doing?
Promoting themselves, being happy doing activism and enjoying their bodies in public like normal healthy people do. Yes, it is work, enjoying one’s body, which I interpret as constant posing in flattering sexual manner, because otherwise it sounds weird to me, to enjoy one’s body. My body exists, do I enjoy it? It is a new thing, full-on pleasure seeking culture and feelings dictate it and the body. Photographing one’s toes, hands, hair, legs, head, ass, posing and selling something they call accepting, learning to be you, positivity, beauty, enjoyment, enjoyment shaped for camera, snapping pictures where cuteness and prettiness are a good thing filters making the person unreal and an imaginary being, beauty celebrated and commented, beautiful. Are they expressing themselves on apps or is it imitation repeating a lucrative model as many times as possible for how long? What is the innovation, what is the trick? Wondered what does an Insta profile tell of a person? Depending what there is, just one face, just one ass or many asses? Looking for attention, making some kind of a point of human existence today and it is to be seen as much as possible and need for enjoyment in life is this visual manifesting, proof of having existed and lived in a certain way, having chosen a lifestyle. Living the life is defined in a very specific way. Entertainment and fun are obviously a big part, why is it the artist who somehow can’t turn the focus on to this party and is suddenly phobic? Am I too critical? I thought feminism embraces women who say what they think. To let people be themselves? Yes, I thought that was the thing. Culture which celebrates flesh, surgery, fixing oneself to be the best you getting the Kylie-look putting on Bambi-ears? Contradictions keep getting bigger and lying is the make-everybody-happy-trick? Seeking pleasurable experiences and at the same time infantilising adults accepting this metamorphosis as love for self, the world and everybody to witness daily how much love there is in likes. Critics are haters, who must be banned. It is a kind of a fix for not wanting to hear opposing views. Many are making according to themselves an art work of themselves. Filters do help in imagining a different you. You are your image in a way. This is how you want to be seen, what do we see or are looking at? Objectifying a living human is the ongoing progress/process with surgery and enhancements, in hopes of finding a positive community who accepts you and your endeavour. It is to watch this as a play and think, when does the wall come where we crash? Who dies?
So, I do take a critical point of view, I don’t enjoy porn as an everyday entertainment or much ever, which is the new normal, pornofication, profession just as any and what it changes. Many trends today fall flat no matter how hyped they are, are short-lived and the fat-filled ass falls down more quickly than expected. Our genitals have been the source of shame, definitive, personal and all different and we play with them since childhood. Why do we have this urge to homogenise or feel inadequate if we don’t fit in the wanted model? It is contradicting the mantra be the best you and be yourself. If we are not able to be ourselves, who are we? Who can/must we be? There is pressure. Who is the one who is not accepted? It is the phobic one. So don’t be afraid, even though it is a horror show.
Drawing a naked body from a photograph found online which is porn, I guess, a study by me, I like to think. Nudity is not as accepted as it may seem. Is it shouting louder because it is art in a different way in the landscape of digital plenty and why have I chosen this photograph? Was the photograph art, a snapshot? Does it change into something or change anything by me focusing on this image particularly? Or should fine art be permanently a refuge from scum and ugliness where human body is depicted noble and always in the best light certain parts veiled? Is fine art for realism or to tell a pretty story? Push is for the latter, for politically correct, polite unhurtful bliss of visuals. Filtering photos on apps does the same. It eliminates the unwanted parts. You are/must be admired. Being openly perverted is to be who you are, letting it all hang, filtered nudity is not perverted, but admirable and desirable. Drawing is examining human figure in a different slow way. You really have to look and be happy with the result or disappointed. Failure is there and an option. Drawing is focus and today human figure takes this kind of poses fast forward. I guess we are experimenting with something we do not know what will happen. We look very profound indeed. Skin deep nowadays. Contrapposto is bygones, in a way. Link to fine art exists in forms of sexism, hypocrisy and denial, what can be looked at and not, scandalous contents do make art go round, like nothing else. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrapposto
This is what I have been wondering when looking for interesting faces and bodies to draw online, pictures that are not perfected, fixed in any way, but are natural and raw and put out there to inform. Just the amount of images is massive and the condition of human civilisation as well is growing? Why point one’s phone to the crotch? Why genitals? This is my ultimate question. Lack of topics out there? No one to talk to? Approaching the issue of ugliness: what is it, what is hidden and why, how filters work in making reality and what reality looks like without, what do we want to see and when we have seen what we wanted, what then? Faking is fixing oneself, faking is making it. It is a long time topic for young women to fix their genitals to look as small and even as possible, symmetrical and surgically fix oneself to match the new ideal whatever it may be, the doll-like object who is appalled by objectification but desires to be herself an object. Be herself and an object? This is progress and must be processed. Processed/progressed to feeling inadequate, when one does not fit the perfect image, have a perfect body and a perfect life. Maybe we will progress to not having feelings next, so the objectification is perfect, dissatisfaction will be gone. No unhappy feelings, the ultimate desire. But this is what many seem to think already what world should be like. There are people who have feelings and people who don’t and yet feelings are the ones that guide what is right and who is hurt the most, who shouts the loudest. See my feelings and you can’t hurt me.
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What Makes an Artist? – Grayson Perry and Sarah Thornton | Tate Talks
It is the very basic battle, a kind of violent arguing and taking sides of how to know what is art and decide about it strictly, or could it just be as simple as you like it as art, enjoy it as art. The same struggle goes on with who is an artist and can be an artist. Is it money that makes the professional, is it quality, network, school and family? To know is to know professional quality and understand the standing of the artist, how complex it all is. One definition does not apply for all. Measuring happens very often by evaluating skill, the artistry itself is the measure of how good an artist one is, how much effort and sweat art has taken to make. This idea is prized widely, what does skill tell us. We want to be blown away by craftsmanship, price and size, effort and extraordinary rare talent. Idea of normal physical labor and validation of certain results can take too much hold. To ask to copy reality as it is seen is a normal question and can you do it. Something equals good. People measure art and the artist via how much what is being made is exactly a replica of what we see and know. For many that is valuable as art, familiarity, knowing, recognizing, seeing, understanding and that it is also difficult. Artistry is also on which pedestal the person is and is a matter of climbing there, visibility, media coverage, being noticed, written about and acknowledged by those who know. Is this a spot for manipulation? Fine art is a highly specific specified field where expertise is required and those who think they don’t know enough are scared they make fools of themselves, which scare exists there among all. Maybe that is why scene is so stiff, very difficult to approach, reluctant to change eventhough it is talking about it and difficult to get in to as it is made of people who measure art and people. Interestingly positions of power are held on to a long time which does not help, conventions and hierarchies rule. Position gained is not given away that easily. Position of power in art is an interesting topic for the reason that the field is so specific, isolated and demands a lot of knowledge to know and be an expert of. Those who have power are trusted and valued. How power is used then? It does not look all that good in terms of making speedy progress.
There are those who decide for borders, walls, expectations to be filled and labels to be put on a person, reputations and careers to be had and probably the crowd is too small and tight. Celebration and party is a closed area. Artist is a kind of grand title and an honorary one as such, although honor is a strange concept in this regard, in terms of art. Is it honourable to be an artist and what does it mean? To practise what you preach? Make wonderful objects, eye candy for buyers? Double standards and looking good are a matter of keeping the impeccable image and what is art for other than image/habitus purposes, usually it is an accepted thought art is good for our spirit and health in general. When we look good we are happy and content? The grandiose and size enclosed there is part of the myth of an artist which oftentimes and more and more is a burden for art, artists, for the whole system and that it is male. To be an artist is a loaded profession, a fairytale and a fable, which one must over and over again debunk, break and disturb. Packed with stereotypes and clichés that circle in people’s minds, artist is sacred idolized archetype, this used up poster has troubled me and caused frustration, when does it ever change. How does an artist look like, how is artist portrayed, where art is when it is art, how approachable it all is and what is fear of art, how weird the artist is, how sick. Problems there are ideological and stuck always involving status, gender, class, money, quality of art, form of art, origin, places of show, networking, ways of interacting and talking etc. It is a whole bunch issues and beliefs that are and will be problematic, hard to overcome, accept or understand why they hold on so tightly. What is the turning point? One definitely is that art schooling remains available for those who do not come from money and that it is not a shameful thing to be working class.
What happens when you add the word luxury and luxurious to describe something? There are expectations and dreams. Smell of honey, touch of heaven, access to something few can have, costly in many ways and a culture that is waste itself. As diamonds, cars, houses, furniture, clothes, bags, interiors, travel can be luxurious they are on the expense of nature and human labor. When status of a person is based on what that person owns we live in an upside down world where surface is more important that what is on the inside. Something becomes luxurious when someone with mastering skill and name has made an exquisite piece of design with the best materials possible and has possibility to market his/her items as luxury brand. Luxury is the standard for the super wealthy which those less wealthy desire to have and it is a big business. Question is why do we desire luxury so much and what does expensiveness and spending give extra to a person (do we measure each other by what we can buy, so it seems…), so much so that spending on luxury is more than a whim, it is goal and a sign of happiness of some sort. To have a show off lifestyle and means to buy all one wants is so important to many that not being able to do that can be a shame. The glittering standard to reach out is doing terrible harm in many ways.
Watching entertainment industry which pushes a very specific kind of imagery and story lines, most of which is pure advertising and ‘making a living’ via being exposed and creating public persona who uses a look, creates looks which make something to want and be, identify and copy. Gossip, celebrity lifestyle, following, idolizing, noticing even when not following because there is no escape. It is almost impossible to escape the internet, the monster, and wherever TV:s and magazines fill in to our attention in any space. How our attention is monitored, monetized, our clicking makes money for someone, our interest is woken or numbed with sheer nonstop manipulation, overly and fully pumped air and surfaces of fun and something to want. All revolves around money, the news, the gossip, statistics, living, figures, scales, how much and where to reach, not enough or a jackpot. Feeling this and that and why, so confused, attempting to analyse something which is chemical, not matured, inherited pampered yearning to be someone else as we are not good enough. Personal growth is not guaranteed, but that is not actually the kind of growth we are looking for even though it sounds good and is socially acceptable to be good at heart and be against bad things, horrible things. What is socially acceptable then in a world which is in need of constant growth, attention, posing people and world that cannot stand silence, distance, loneliness and awkwardness but wants us to have fun, wants us to demonstrate how much fun we are having and know what is fun. Meaning of fun is to escape when normal life is not fun.
But back again to question of what anything is worth, worth while doing, how things are priced and valued, of which much has to do with media attention and exposure. I personally value a peaceful place to stay and work at, privacy, a good night sleep, closeness of nature and freedom of expression in my art and writing. Do these things have monetary value, are they something money can buy as they are something all should have self-evidently? I do not have much money (that kind of privilege I do not have) and to me things I mentioned are inexpensive or free, so it is difficult to estimate how valuable in money they are, but I would not trade them and when such things we take for granted like nature become polluted and disappearing altogether clean and pure become something only the rich can afford. To define rich is therefore a bit tricky.
There are many ways to be rich. There are many things contemporary people find amusing and fun and the same things I resent. We are rich in wanting more than is possible perhaps, wanting wrong things, ending up with something we didn’t want to end up with. Value of anything is a strange equation and still quite simple, it is difficult to put a finger on it and know why something costs what it does. Difficult to fully know why something very basic is out of reach for many and is therefore luxurious like clean water, having a bath and living in peace. The cost of a museum franchise has been interesting to follow and learn: this is what a museum of modern art costs and those others are more expensive so it is a kind of bargain. Rhetoric is absurd to the extent that it is clear there is no bargaining, it is not charity, it is simply business. In this line of thought to ask for community funds is pretty weird and adding a kind heart into luxurious world of art where kindness is not an option. Kindness does not exist in business nor in art. As an artist I understand and accept the cost of being an artist, what the art world stands for and what it does I do not accept. What does it do then? As I see it produces luxury items and produces a massive amount of horse shit propaganda. A little taste of luxury.
