I have recently been captivated by iterations of Venus, particularly in her earliest, clay form. These prehistoric representations, with their bold curves, expressive and diverse shape language have made it a pleasure to discover and analyze. When Homo sapiens first began to create, it sculpted the figure of a woman.  And as is human nature, this figure kept evolving,perfected, reshaped and reinterpreted again and again.

Until it ended up in our present moment, inevitably entering into the realm of AI.

I explored different versions of Venus, drawing from both art historical sources, particularly Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, and contemporary popular culture. Along the way, I encountered an example that stayed with me. I uploaded an image of Beyoncé announcing the birth of her twins into an AI image generator. An image meant to represent a contemporary rendition of Venus didn’t just become a washed-out version of the original, it revealed the persistent biases embedded in image-generation models.

The original image, rich in maternal symbolism and cultural specificity, was flattened. The subject appeared paler, glowing with a sanitized, otherworldly light. Her body was reshaped into a symmetrical, airbrushed form, and her children disappeared altogether. What remained was not an image of motherhood, but a stylized figure made to satisfy generalized expectations of beauty and desirability.

On one hand, the existence of a non-human, artificial proxy might offer relief, allowing the real body to escape the burden of idealization. In contrast, the proxy acts like a sponge to absorb the objectifying gazes of others. 

On the other it reinforces issues with representation and erasure that are long standing and seemingly unchanging for centuries.

What remains is a world where the once-worshipped, curvaceous goddess-mother is reduced to a hollow collage of unattainable ideals. 

And yet, I can’t help but wonder: can I create this proxy for myself?
A crackled, uneven, many-limbed Hydra who dances on the edge between grotesque and beauty. If such a flawed body can carry beauty, maybe freedom isn’t tied to perfection after all.

If we can imagine new ways of seeing the body,
can we return Venus to her hot, fiery glory?