The Venus Accord

Ladies Lounge en Plein Air, Gold Coast

The Venus Accord was a large-scale participatory performance and living installation presented as the closing ceremony of Ladies Lounge at HOTA on the Gold Coast, in collaboration with Kirsha Kaechele.

For this work, the gallery dissolved into landscape. The frame disappeared. The beach became our stage.

Together with 68 people, we gathered by the ocean, on Miami Beach, wrapped in white fabric, carrying our bodies, stories, and presence into a collective act of freedom. Through movement, stillness, laughter, ritual, and release, we transformed ourselves into a living artwork.

Inspired by the long history of women being represented, framed, idealised, fragmented, and observed throughout art history, The Venus Accord asked a simple question: what happens when women are no longer the subject of the artwork, but become its authors?

The movement throughout the performance was led by Dr. Elnaz Sheshgelani, whose choreography guided us collectively across the beach. Through gesture, rhythm, and embodied presence, she shaped moments of intimacy, strength, and connection, allowing the group to move as both individuals and a shared body.

As part of the organising and artistic team, I supported bringing people together and helping shape this collective experience.

It was a magical day, full of softness, courage, joy, vulnerability, and connection. For an hour, the beach became a place of trust and possibility, where strangers became collaborators and created something impossible to repeat.

Like many of my works, The Venus Accord embraced ephemerality: existing only once, then dissolving back into memory, photographs, and the bodies that carried