I decided to make a Venus figurine, reminiscent of the Venus of Willendorf figure. The Venus is supposed to be a universal image for beauty; being the standard basically of early western civilization. Men worshipped artworks made in her name, and there are countless renditions of her in galleries internationally.

Additionally, the Hottentot Venus, formally known as Saartjie Bartman, was another famous Venus image which inspired me to create this piece. She was placed in a museum for the fact that her butt was so large and she had an extended labia; white people could not believe the way her body looked.

My Venus was composed of recycled bottles of tequila, acid washed jean shorts, bottle caps, discarded buttons, old stick on nails and old eyelashes. She reminds me, personally, of the voodoo dolls traditional to many different Caribbean cultures, such as Trinidad or Haiti (which is where both sides of my family are from). I named her the Venus of SoWa, which is the nickname for the Trinidadian town of San Juan–where I created her and found the materials to do so. She also makes a noise similar to the Shak-Shak: a Trinidadian musical device similar to a maraca or rainmaker. I filled her with rocks I found on the beach. My Venus also features an original pattern by me, which is feathers since the traditional Trinidad has just occurred and I participated in it. There are feathers and gems littering the streets after the colorful festival.

I then put the rocks inside of the tequila bottle.

I then superglued one smaller bottle to a bigger one, and placed the bottle caps to make her breasts.

After that, I dressed her in the fabric I printed, again using superglue.

Here are a couple of details I added.

Then finished off her face and gave her a photoshoot!