i am an artist who works across multiple mediums with a focus on body, time, spirit and language. my work starts from the understanding that material systems emerge from belief systems and that effective transformation begins with investing in the working/reconfiguring of belief systems.

i was born in durban, in 1990. growing up in the white suburbs of post(ish)-apartheid south africa, my childhood-world revolved around intense ballet training and the christian religion. god and dance was how i made sense of the world and i now find myself creating from the foundations of an embodied and spiritual practice. god and dance are still very much how i make sense of the world although these days, the gods and dances look and feel quite different.

with the knowledge that part of my ancestral lineage includes a normalization and continuation of colonial projects, i am curious about how a body with both the material and immaterial inheritances such as mine can contribute to a dismantling of eurocentric logic, white supremacy and various imperial structures and beliefs that sustain ongoing injustices.

i find creative labour and play to be very effective strategies in cultivating the imagination that is necessary to go beyond a posture of coloniality that has shaped (is shaping) my being. my artistic practice encompasses a variety of actions, big and small, that include reading, writing and conversing/communing with others. as well as through dancing, singing, music-making, performance-making, book-making. sometimes the only thing that makes sense is indeed poetry. i am a life-long student of plants and planets, and am engaged in ongoing studies of both astrology and herbalism.

here are some keywords that may help locate the kinds of things i do / make / research / work or spend time with:

storytelling – dance – poem – song – time – ritual – names – language – performance – experimentation – epistemology – theology –  history – decoloniality – god(s) – archives – ancestors – friendship – play – magic – improvisation – love.

if you have questions or want to connect, please don’t hesitate to get in touch at nicola.van.straaten@gmail.com or subscribe to my museletter here.