For nearly 7 years figure artist Joel Church has been building Uenus.
“Uenus is a combination of wenes and uenis, the IndoEuropean predecessor of Venus. It has connections to "to honor, grace, favor, friend, wish for, and desire." Uenes is Spanish for "you are" and Latin for "the young." I think all of these ideas are tied in with our bodies as we experience connection through them.”
In 2019 I stood still, nervous, and excited, watching my form take shape as a model for Uenus. Having so recently begun my own journey with nude portraiture, the experience was instructive and I knew I had to document Joel’s process and experience it from a new vantage. When my friend Vanessa said she wanted to volunteer, and Joel let me in to see, I jumped at the chance.
After a long chatty ride we arrived at Joel’s middle-of-nowhere studio that offered plenty of light, quiet, and space for his work. Joel’s studio is a lab of sorts with busts and torsos, clay smeared plastic, packing materials, paint, wood blocks, and a lotta chairs.
Once we got settled Vanessa and Joel started woking together joining a long and old tradition figure art.
From the 30,000-year-old Venus figures to the ancient cast sculptures, this tradition participating in an art form that produces that kind of staying power underscores the fleeting aliveness of everything that makes the artist and their collaborators such beautiful fleeting flesh blips.
A hours long experience modeling begins with excited nerves and a lump of shapeless clay that becomes a figure in likeness that tells nothing of the nerves, sore boredom, and fascination with process while the experience itself foreshadows what will last (legacy and metal) and who won’t (flesh, thoughts, bone).
The cast sculpture’s shape endures where the human body cannot. Its form transcends the flesh that inspired it, standing as a tribute to what lasts and doesn’t.
Whether it’s the one who sits to hold shape and space or the one who sees and forms the figure, both model and artist act as tributes- guardians who both keep tradition and inspire its evolution.
The model is both pioneer and ancestor, an embodiment of the lineage and a challenger of norms that shape new futures within the edgy continuum of creativity.
The artist takes their place as translator, storyteller, conduit, and keeper of the tradition that makes clay into flesh with their own singular hands.
A huge and heartfelt thank you to both Joel and Vanessa who let me in on this incredible process and experience.
As Uenus evolves, Joel’s work continues with a dedicated focus on process and community. Although modeling for Uenus is currently closed, Joel is looking for volunteers to help him cast, a chance to contribute to the piece’s next phase. To contact Joel shoot him a dm via Instagram HERE.