medium: sculpture

dimensions: 15 x 30 x 30cm

year: 2019

Venus and I is a two-part work comprised of a video and sculpture, which draws upon Saidiya Hartman’s ‘Venus in Two Acts’. The text reflects on Venus, an enslaved black woman and her simultaneous presence and absence in the archive of Atlantic slavery. Venus and I (II), reflects on the silent violence of the archive where names are censored by virtue of power and interweaves her story to one in the present day, examining how structures in society such as patriarchy and capitalism perpetuate unequal power relations. In spite of this, the flower which is handcrafted from a paper doilley and encased in the sphere, celebrates her passing and comments on her ongoing transmission within black female bodies today.