Tag: love

While Europe Was Burning by Tytti Heikkinen

Artist’s Statement

The creation of this work was influenced by the changed situation in Europe. It was hard to believe that a war could still break out here in the 2020s. All of that was supposed to be over, history was not meant to repeat itself anymore. The fact that it did is still difficult to believe.

Another reason behind the image was the tightening grip of rightwing political and conservative views, which from time to time rear their heads. Fortunately, at the same time, a more liberal world is also being celebrated in the colors of the rainbow. From all this emerged a vision of Classical statues coming to life, who, even in the midst of a burning Europe, focus on what truly matters to them: the encounter between two people, the desire to learn the other completely, and to share one’s life through its twists and turns. Love can make even statues move.

The figures in the image are able to block out the graffiti-stained school assembly hall, a symbol of European cultural heritage, now falling into decay, and the flames blazing through the windows, because even in the midst of fear they are willing to focus on each other.

Dance is an activity that requires both the will and the ability to act together. That is why it is such an important symbol to me. Sometimes, when I watch traditional ballroom dance, I get tears in my eyes, because partner dancing is such a powerful and beautiful art form, regardless of its rhythm.

These Classical figures are dancing traditional Argentine tango. The posture shown in the image is an authentic dance position of the genre.

Tytti Heikkinen (she/her) is a Finnish visual artist working across photography, painting, and digital media. Based in Finland, she has exhibited internationally, with work appearing in Amsterdam Review, Arkana, and Ex-Puritan, among others.

A Note from Writers Resist
Thank you for reading! If you appreciate creative resistance and would like to support it, you can make a small, medium or large donation to Writers Resist on our Give a Sawbuck page.

s k i n

By Rebecca Havens

She is dancing by the entrance. Graceful, slow-then-fast; even Helen can neither compete nor look away.

Drinking in the shadows, I imagine all the shapes violence comes in, collectively stomping her meat into the pavement. I am one with the darkness—but I swear, I can see each layer of skin even through this candlelight, even from across the room, even with her flitting about this place, hip bones on full display. I will painstakingly peel, layer by layer like an onion, to form small arrays of flesh, penetrable by the light.

I will hang them up to create monotone papel picado. Sheet by sheet spread onto my windowpane until it consumes the sunlight that tries to come through the door to disturb this dark romance. How is there so much skin unraveled? How is there so much skin still on her? Spread as thin as a whisper across mountaintops, I could cover the vast seafloor with her remnants. A declaration of some sort. Man makes meaning out of fluff; so I will construct meaning out of this pastime as well.

Dermis, thicker. Slowly, would-be tenderly, unearthing filthy filmy sacrifices to a god I do not believe in. Lung tas claiming stake to this apartment, to these long plank floors and its dust-catching corners, just as I am claiming stake to her.

To love is a craft—but so is it to hate.

Tissue, fat, muscle, that fleshy softness and her blood. Spreading, spreading, I cover my desk, my best coffee mugs, my trash can and the sink in the vacant parts.

I Sweeney Todd her innards, mixing her meat with other meats to create a bouquet of unmatched delicacy. Potluck indeed.

And a heart. I want to pour resin over this heart, I want to taxidermy it and keep it close. I want to whittle wood into its likeness. I want to create an altar to this grim offering.

Next time you tell me “boys will be boys,” I will smile my mischievous smile, drop my head, and nod to acknowledge this sin.

Rebecca Havens is a happy person. They work in the political space. They mostly write fiction and poetry, but adore everything.

Photo credit: Christian y Sergio Velasco via a Creative Commons license.

A note from Writers Resist
Thank you for reading! If you appreciate creative resistance and would like to support it, you can make a small, medium or large donation to Writers Resist from our Give a Sawbuck page.