Venus
Jasper
May 2024
Visual Arts
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Venus Jasper (they/he) is queer visual artist and musician, storyteller, world builder, writer, and curator - currently based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. They completed a Masters in Fine Arts in 2023 at the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam. Born in a household broken by substance abuse, they spent their childhood free time in nearby swamplands, imagining worlds. The moist outdoors provided co-regulation for their nervous system; it became their queer neuro-diverse sacred space – a place to be with trauma; to receive guidance; be at peace.
In their current artistic practice, they work with participatory performances that take place inside greatly detailed hand-made multi-sensory installations. Via speculative and ritual gatherings they like to offer room for queer kinship and connection with the natural world, and each other. Their first big solo show, EARTHSHRINE, presented a speculative shrine for soil full of earthly imaginations. It featured videos, drawings, sculptures, a scent-scape, and various live programs, all wrapped in a huge hand-made willow and hemp fiber sculptural wall. At the moment, Venus is working on Wetland Worship, a project focused on swamps, bogs, and other murky wetlands that are historically drained and misused. Jasper has exhibited internationally since 2010.
BIO
“I'm interested in kinship with wetlands and swamps and the imagined sentiments of wetland goddesses, rituals, and the exploration of odd material practices. Returning to my early-age interests: I want to work with unpractical organic materials: water, insects, algae, rot, speculative DIY labs, twig basketry, fish leather, and sounds - even pests like mosquitos matter: they are something sacred. Via sensuous multi-media installations, I want to create experiential spaces for the whole body (all senses) in order to ask existential questions fitted to our climatological decaying times. I want to entangle unpractical living materials with steady and tested materials like steel, plastic, electronics, ceramics, and video art. I want to make "functional sculptures" that depict wetland godheads made of ceramic, wood, fish leather, metals, and other objects. These sculptures live inside large installations appearing to be sacred future-LABS. There are clues pointing to speculative users. We see videos too, that were filmed inside these installations; perhaps live feeds. I fuse virtual and material; queer eco-fiction and documentary; activate sculpture with participants, and leave residues to be pondered. I believe it matters to worship and deeply feel again; to listen to what does not fit into capitalist models of resource extraction.”
STATEMENT
How Do You Define Innovative Storytelling? How Can This Innovation Be Used As A Tool To Educate, Preserve, And Celebrate The Natural Environment?
“In my creative journey, I've been deeply immersed in the world of Oral Culture, storytelling, and mythology as powerful tools for preserving ecological and cultural knowledge. These narratives serve as a means to uphold ontologies often overlooked or erased in the frenetic pace of extraction-based societies.
Hailing from the southeastern Netherlands, a region abundant in wetlands with historical roots in the worship of bogs and fens dating back to pre-Roman Celtic times, I have felt a profound calling to retell the story of wetlands. This endeavor serves a dual purpose: to challenge the prevailing ontological perception of swamps and wetlands as foul, unsuitable wastelands—when, in reality, they are incredibly diverse and vital ecosystems—and to draw inspiration from the enigmatic, intermediate nature of these landscapes, a quality I find profoundly queer.
For me, innovative storytelling represents a holistic sensory experience that engages all the senses—sound, smell, touch, visuals, temperature, and moisture—to construct immersive worlds where stories are not merely shared but co-created. A fusion of pre-existing elements such as video, objects, sculptures, scripts, and ritual outlines converges with live activation and participation from the audience.
Over my decade-long artistic journey, my entire practice has revolved around innovative storytelling using various media. I firmly believe that this approach is pivotal in forging deeper connections between the audience and the story, its meaning, and its potential to resonate in our daily lives beyond the confines of the artistic experience.
This cross-media, participatory, and somatic style of storytelling not only enhances retention and connection but also serves as a potent tool for education, celebration, and preservation. It enables the sharing of tools, knowledge, passion, and sentiment, all while fostering collaborative storytelling experiences that allow us to collectively shape the narrative. In this way, my innovative storytelling serves as a means for collective engagement, education, and celebration, enabling us to weave a richer, more profound narrative about the environment together.”