About the series
At a point of time, when, on my pictures, human figures and the thoughts on human existence gained more and more importance, it happened that there were no models available, to contribute to the creative process. This point (or period 🙂 ) of time roughly covered the point (or period 🙂 ) of time when I was searching for 3D modeling software capable of modeling human figures – or, it is possible that I was searching for such software so that I could place human figures on my pictures in the lack of a real human model. 🙂
I actually found a program with the help of which, I could place more or less (sometimes less) human-like creatures on my pictures, in any desired postures. These figures were processed through distortion effects and alloyed with textures, by using image editing software. I think that the resulting images are peculiar, mysterious, bizarre and thought-provoking. So, that is how the image series entitled Digital figures was created. These images depict visual metaphores of human (and other) creatures, and short, dense, allegoric stories.
You can see the full series here.
Emancipated to death
The concept of emancipation emerges from (Roman) civil law, and originally meant the cessation of paternal authority over the child. In the modern era, emancipation means that we treat minorities (racial, ethnical or religious) as equal. Emancipation of women aims the equality of women in society, including the right to vote, education, work, and many other areas of life.
The process of the emancipation of women is, however, antinomic in a way, and definitely leads to dubiety and questions. No intelligent human being would doubt that the two genders represent equal value. But it would be foolish to deny that, in an evolutionary, biological and historical sense, women and men naturally specialized in different areas of life during the formation and development of human society, culture, and civilization.
In indigenous communities, heavy or dangerous tasks, like hunting or fighting and defending the tribe were undertaken by males. Later, it remained men’s task to ensure the subsistence of the family, however, there has always been a certain division of labour between the two genders (for instance, women took part in gathering food or certain agricultural activities). Still, the most natural and traditional area of women’s activities work was the home, the house, including one of the biggest responsibilities: taking care of and growing up children. Those tasks bear incredible importance for human culture. The quality of a young life determines the nature and standard of the “primary commodity” of culture and civilization. The emotional setting and environment, created by a mother during the first years of children’s life, has utmost importance and largely influences later years.
I wish that women would be free to choose any field of knowledge, any path of life, any profession. I wish they could set any aim, and that they would enjoy total freedom in self-fulfilment. However, I would like to mention that, so far, the emancipation process has gone through some distortion and has led to scrupple and queries.
1. Women’s massive influx in the labour-market, unfortunately, was not primarily based on their free decisions. It was induced by economic pressure and necessitation, especially after the two World Wars. Men happened to be so inconceivably mindless that they managed to exterminate many million members of their own gender. The void thus created in the labour market (sorry for the detached wording) needed to be filled – and that’s what women had to do. This is by no means self-fulfilment, I think. This is the shameful result of human idiocy.
2. So, the labour market opened for women, partly because of the pressure described above. This, and other economical processes profoundly rearranged the distribution of tasks among women and men; even the concept of the family was redefined in a sense. The multicore, multi-generational family model has disappeared or at least got forced back. Dual-earner families became the standard. Though society has adapted to the new circumstances, we can not say that women have won in the game. In this new situation, they are required to fulfil their original tasks (namely, housekeeping and taking care of children) IN ADDITION to working in a profession. Obviously, there are many families where this situation is handled well and successfully. Day nurseries and kindergartens can also offer some help. Still, I am unable to get rid of the sucpicion that, hiding under this new, “modern” look of the world, there are ongoing processes that do harm to the intellectual, emotional and spiritual components of our culture. Look at this rampant consumerism, look at this modern slavery. Kids today surely spend less time in emotionally healthy and benevolent settings, but definitely spend more time with gadgets or consuming media garbage. It is also rightful to ask: these days, what can we say about the quality of the time parents can spend with their children? Few are so lucky that their job is the deeply desired self-fulfilment, too. Also very few people would consider their workplace to be an island of serenity. It can be an enormous task to, despite all the tension and stress, fill the time spent with children with meaningful content and positive emotions. If the mayhem done to the traditional social institution of the family wasn’t enough, even family itself began to disappear. Living single is more and more prevalent. In spite of the social media madness, loneliness, isolation and alienation is what I see. In the eyes of the maniacs eager for money and power, women, men, children and family are nothing but target groups.
3. Finally: do you think the emancipation of women has come true? Well, only partially, so far. Surely, you can see brilliant women in all areas, some of them prooved to be successful managers and leaders, others are great professionals and scientists. And it is heartwarming to see that they are the true champions of professions that require empathy and advanced emotional intelligence, like health-care or pedagogics. But, if we look into statistics, it will be clear that, in average, both women’s chances on the labour market and their salaries are significantly lower than those of men.
I wish the nicer half of humanity could freely choose any course of life. At the same time, though I’m sort of disillusioned, it would be great to see mankind inventing something more human than this world of alienation, impersonality and consumer slavery. It would be also great to help mothers fulfil their motherly role. Before we get emancipated to death.