DIY Venuses - 2020

Venus of Willendorf
(made with the toolkit DIY Venuses)

The Birth of Venus - by Botticelli
(made with the toolkit DIY Venuses)


Venus of Milo
(made with the toolkit DIY Venuses)


Venus of Urbino - by Titian
(made with the toolkit DIY Venuses)


DIY Venuses
A toolkit to make those famous Venuses yourself

The toolkit consist of 20 open wooden cubes with a turnable frame inside. 57 ceramic skin folds in 7 different shapes. These ceramic skin folds can be placed within the frames of the wooden cubes. Wooden connectors and clamps are used to connect horizontally and vertically (direct and cross-like) the different cubes.


20 Wooden Cubes

57 Skin Folds

Wooden connectors and clamps

Four different Venuses are already made with this toolkit:

Venus of Willendorf (20 cubes)
The birth of Venus – by Botticelli (19 cubes)
Venus of Milo (16 cubes)
Venus of Urbino – by Titian (18 cubes)

All other Venuses - famous or not - can be made. Divide the image of the Venus in squares. Like 3D pixelating. Make a position drawing of all open cubes. Select which skin fold for which cube. The glazed side or the white side of the skin fold can be shown. The skin fold can be vertically or horizontally positioned in the turnable frame of the wooden cube. The cube can also be left empty.

In 2019 I made these skin folds during a residency at EKWC that was partially sponsored by stichting Stokroos. This year the skin folds are used in this work “DIY Venuses” . With thanks to the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam for support in building and photographing the works.