Who hold the water here II. Sculpture

The heads, which give the impression of being larger statues’ fragments, are close to the natural human size. When observing the heads through water and grates the observer is invited to search for meaning. Despite the wide-open mouths and tightly closed eyes, the figures provide us with a sense of unusual tranquillity, reminding us of physical ecstasy, religious rapture, or pre-mortal speechlessness. At first glance one can realise that their expressions have sexual connotations and realisms despite their scarcely idealised forms, but then the viewer gradually ascertains the more realistic and brutal aspects of the possible fates of the depicted women (subordinated, reduced to a sexual object, silenced, deceased). Harmony and beauty seem to be sacrificed for the realism of expression, which is at the same time veiled with a certain existential unknown, with a veil of the unfathomable and inexpressible. The form is here also seen as a reflection of practising body discipline. The history of body image can also be read as the history of attempts to show the body as an aesthetic form, at the same time making visible consequences of a more or less violent disciplining the body. Although the natures of the clays the sculptures are made from does not allow changing from formal to the real perception of the body, it becomes visible as to what is traditionally subject to exclusion from public discourse, especially when it is about sexuality. Unlike aesthetics, that does not lead to the directly perceived reality to the horizon of feelings and thoughts, the achievement of mimetic effect makes us acquainted to some extent with systematic mitigation and reduction of reality with foreign experience, thus creating the perception that would otherwise have been unsustainable.