Spirits. Workers. Kin.
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Spirits. Workers. Kin. (2024) is a series of small glimmering and sombre artworks; gilded wooden panels covered with images of insects, molluscs and molds. Roughly 15 x 20 x 1,5 cm. The small one above is 6 x 10 x 1 cm.
Spirits. Workers. Kin. exudes a sacred aura and draws upon Byzantine iconography, employing gold leaf to elevate simple beings—insects, fungi, microbes—into holy symbols. These “sacred detritivores” navigate the liminal space between life and death; through their invisible labor, they transform decay into growth, and death into life.
Spirits. Workers. Kin. can be seen as a visual meditation on the sanctity of natural cycles, including relapses of pain, trauma and conflict. Resonating with the words of Ursula K. Le Guin: “The forest is forever because it dies and dies and so lives.” With this small-scale, gilded tribute, Venus Jasper reminds us that even in decay, there is something sacred—and in the tiniest beings of life, a profound divinity.
Spirits. Workers. Kin. invites us to reconsider our relationship with these small yet indispensable creatures. Are they pests or vital kin? Are they entities, or merely organisms?
- The work was presented at Ghost of Futures Past at Garage Rotterdam, and at Pushing up Daisies at Spazio Volta Bergamo (IT).
- The work is discussed in "A shimmer of a possible space and time" interview by Garage Rotterdam (2025).
- This work is available on venusjasper.earth/shop.
