Monthly image: Vulvatar by Marja Hautamäki
– I´m an experimenter as an artist, and all kinds of new ways of making art interest me. Even though I´m mainly a sculptress, I don´t want to create too strict limits for my art. I move smoothly from sculpture to painting, which can give me an idea for video art etc, writes Merja Hautamäki.
Marja Hautamäki, Vulvatar, 2019, design concrete, ceramics, iron, 200 x 125 x 113 cm
I´m an experimenter as an artist, and all kinds of new ways of making art interest me. Even though I´m mainly a sculptress, I don´t want to create too strict limits for my art. I move smoothly from sculpture to painting, which can give me an idea for video art etc. For me, art is an endless playground where everything is possible. During art school, I developed a new painting technique, which I also utilized on the surface structure of the sculpture.
Lately, I´ve been pondering through art for example the female vulva in our culture and our ideals of beauty. Is the beauty in the eye of the beholder or our culture, and do we need to accept time or rebel against it? Many of my reflections are about me, and thus about our society.
What is right and what is wrong, what is beautiful and what is ugly, what is the importance of feelings in these times?
The themes in my art include personal matters, subjects that are difficult for me. At the centre there is always my conception of beauty. What is right and what is wrong, what is beautiful and what is ugly, what is the importance of feelings in these times? When is a human weak enough to be able to see, grow and accept oneself with those weaknesses. I often feel that I don´t belong anywhere, I´m homeless and in a foreign land. I have turned the feeling of alienation to a thought that I have many homes. My home is the place wherever I feel safe.
Vulvatar work of art derives from a wish to create a Goddess of my own. I was dealing with my own femininity and issues related to femininity in general through Vulvatar. This Goddess proudly carries the burden of all women by vulva hair flowing on hands, strong and self-possessed. I created the molds, where I molded ceramic vulvas. By varying them with different forms and colours, I divided the vulvas into groups of which I composed the hair and the crown. I finished off the body of the artwork by the painting technique I had developed.
Marja Hautamäki, was born in Kemi in 1970. She will graduate from SAMK with a Bachelor´s degree in Culture and Arts later in 2019. The photo of the artwork is from the thesis exhibition at Mältinranta Art Centre in Tampere. The painting in the background is also Hautamäki´s work of art.
Contact information:
tel. 040 8293776
email: mape.hautamaki@gmail.com
Homepage: https://mapehautamaki.wixsite.com/mysite
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