Olya Strakhovskaya

still walking on the wild side — where the wild things are

myepi bliss by @ellina_lee

there’s been quite a debate around pillion, one i’m joining a bit late. the film is undeniably well made, especially for a debut, penetrating an underexplored territory of queer bdsm power play and taking both audiences and critics by the throat with its leather aesthetics and bold authenticity, even involving members of a gay biker club in consultation and on screen. yet the way the film has been framed as a kind of kinky romance feels dangerously misleading. because this is not a love story. it is not even a narrative of a troubled but ultimately empowering sexual awakening, as some seem eager to read it. what the film actually shows, almost clinically, is a trauma bond sustained by anxiety and avoidance. from a psychotherapeutic perspective, the dynamic is almost textbook. the guy does not really fall for the lifestyle — he falls for the man. the power structure that initially hooks him turns out to be something he internalizes in exchange for proximity and occasional warmth. his longing is painfully ordinary: moments of tenderness, a hint of “normality,” some proof of being wanted. he is willing to sleep on the rug if that’s the price for a few breadcrumbs of affection. seen through that lens, the finale stops looking like a romantic resolution and reads instead as the quiet beginning of a much longer, potentially lifelong story of self-sacrifice and emotional neglect. anyone who has been involved with an emotionally unavailable significant other will recognize the pattern. which leads to a larger and perhaps darker thought. systems built on self-sacrifice and slavery are hardly new. for centuries they have been legitimized by social order, reinforced by religion, and eventually absorbed into the logic of capitalism. the idea that devotion, endurance, and quiet suffering constitute dignity has deep historical roots. romanticizing this structure under the language of love may be one of the most persistent stories we tell ourselves — and perhaps one of the most damaging.

kitty cats 🖤♠️

those should be on the grid, not a story, she said. cam & adventure @salexusa 🖤♠️

the two commandments by @liza.yurieva

my personal year always ends three days before the calendar one, so I’m slightly ahead of the world here. this year was all about new territories, be it solo trekking in patagonia, leading an international media team with writers from canada to kenya, or building a new kind of chosen fam. it would be fair to say that it was a year full of surprises and level ups, and a lot of it was indeed new — but none of it came out of nowhere. and I’m still on the move!

buenos aires, stockholm and bali enter a bar

staying punk in the boholand

lady and the lady

first video artwork in my collection 🔮 honoured to have acquired two pieces of “what would you call a weirdness that hasn’t quite come together?” (2019–2024), an interdisciplinary project by amazing @sofskidan it was the first thing i saw when i entered the @baliartfair — and it hit me instantly with the joy of recognition and the resonance with what i value most in art: uncanniness, raw modernity, the brutality and vulnerability of artistic presence. i couldn’t get it out of my head. it felt as if sofia had translated my own reflections: about how technologies reshape the body and identity, how our avatars drift away from their physical selves, how the very idea of ‘norm’ dissolves. the video moves between natural and digital landscapes, tracing the instability of both, watching the body adapt, mutate, and become something new — a hybrid identity of our post-now. embracing video art is something i’ve been moving toward for years, and it finally happened, thanks to @artcircle.id @thinkruang and the beautiful people of @nuanucreativecity

how to fall in love with saigon in five days and seven nights