shock value

Infant terrible

| Henna Timanttimetsä
infant terrible

She is a she. She must be careful and strain herself. When she does things not permitted for girls she is putting something out of balance and finding stability of her own, which is incomprehensible, unsafe and exciting. Norms for girl behavior are very strict, therefore they are fairly simple to break, if one has the nerve to do it and become infant terrible. Punishments will of course be severe, results somewhat expected and the girl will be shut out as she is improper, stupid, intolerable, smelly and dirty, always in trouble for testing limits set by adults. In the end all she tests is herself and where she can go with small gestures, small cracks in reality, cracks made by her that got bigger.

She farts loudly in a restaurant (small farts smell the worst, but bigger farts make a disturbing element in a sophisticated environment). She starts singing in a bus when everyone else is silent, unexpected noise and clearly retarded. She pours milk on the table and strikes the glass out on the parquet leaving a dent on it. Naughty girl, what is wrong with you. Is that all what happens? It does not take much to become a talking topic. She sees woman on a balcony below her and pours water on her head.

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.