FOMO
“Fear is an instinct that is there to protect you. But, like all of us, you need to ask yourself if you’re fearing the correct thing, or ignoring the truth because you think you already know how the world works? It’s so easy to decide that a familiar thing is harmless and a strange new thing is bad.”
-Miranda Sherry
He sees monsters everywhere
Dear friends,
“…a time before the beginning of time, when this universe was nothing but “the Self”. That Self looked around and saw that there was nothing but itself, whereupon its first shout was. “It is I!” And when that Self had thus become aware of itself as an I, an ego, it was afraid. But it reasoned, thinking, “Since there is no one here but myself, what is there to fear?” Whereupon the fear departed.”
I absolutely adore creation myths, especially this Indian creation myth as quoted in the book written by Joseph Campbell titled: “Myths to live by”
Image: “He sees monsters everywhere” embroidery on rubber. This work is one of 7 pieces included in the Rijswijk Textile Biennale, which opens on the 16th of May 2017.
“She always wanted to be a bad girl” 2016 Cotton thread and rubber 92 x 65 cm
It’s true…since childhood I preferred the ‘bad guys’ in stories more that the good ones. Why?
Well, because they are funny, sometimes they try harder, even when ‘good’ are sure to win. I also find their characters more interesting- and nobody ‘likes’ them…I have a soft-spot for outcasts.
My brother used to have He-Man toys, and back in the day there was a whole television series about it. Skeletor wasn’t portrayed as being very clever….I guess that’s why I don’t find him scary.
Metamorphic humour, which seizes the objects of fear, like beasts, and turns them into something different, something reassuring and even desirable has been the most wildly and successfully adopted stratagem in the confrontation of fear.
Attitudes to scariness change over time…needless to say not everyone enjoys being scared. (from the book: No go the Bogeyman by Marina Warner
He sees monsters everywhere, 2016 Cotton thread, textile and rubber 93 x 65 cm
Our 8 year old son started to ‘see’ monsters this year. So instead of telling him that there are no such thing, I asked him to draw me a picture of this monster that he saw.
I used the drawing of his monster as his shadow in this piece…
I am happy to report that it’s been a while since his last ‘monster-sighting’…xx
p.s It also helped me as a parent to read the book by Marina Warner: “No go the bogeyman”, while trying to understand what is happening. Here is some quotes from that book:
“The children’s word ‘scary’ covers responses raging from pure terror to sheer delight and the condition of being scared is becoming increasingly sought after not only as a source of pleasure but as a means of strengthening the sense of being alive, of having command over self.”
“The toys, films and storybooks of today’s children’s culture reflects like two way mirrors our expectations of children and our image of ourselves, in potentia.”
“Monsters have become children’s best friends, alter egos, inner selves.”
hannalie taute 