venus nest was a forty-two day devotional dance practice dedicated to planet Venus during its retrograde period from 19 dec 2021 to 29 jan 2022. in some ways this was the first artistic project where i was consciously incorporating my studies and practice of astrology.

every day during this period i performed a twenty-minute dance with and in a particular dress. this practice informed my research during my time as a “Fellow” during the Bodies (un)protected programme at Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm. in the essay that i contributed for the accompanying reader for this program, i wrote the following about this practice:

“to train myself to perceive beyond-through colonial thinking, i have a variety of different games/experiments/relationships going on with a variety of different people, animals, plants, objects and entities – such as planets. for example, for the past several months i have embarked on a series of specifically timed devotional dances to the planet we call “Venus”. in traditional Hellenistic astrology, Venus is considered to denote diplomacy, binding, peace or harmony. Venus is often associated with coming together. since apartheid (apart-ness) is a major character in the genetic narrative of my ancestry and lineage, i have been spending fugitive time with Venus in seriously playful ways. i share with you below, some of my findings/learnings that have emerged from these devotional dances with Venus

advice from Venus for thinking around something:

eat your prayers / come face to face with your sex organ / let your tongue play (or) speak in tongues / locate each scar / relinquish accumulation / spread knowledge / be double-hearted / find the unpretentious door / list the incompatible temporal patterns / muddle the books / film the mirror / walking circles, let different parts lead / perform an orgasm to move the shame-pleasure / look the divinity of your ass in mirror / just lie there / hold your pelvis in your palm and listen / smell your whole body / tend to your underneath / sway gently for 15 minutes / fall over and allow a movement to catch you / dedicate a dance to Trust / turn your hand into an ear and listen / observe the beauty of all your little thingies / list the different loves / grind and thrust your grief / seduce yourself / kindly touch whatever is swollen / plan a surprise / find other faces in the mirror / consider that the stuck may be how you get to the next step.