Planeta Ostra (Oyster Planet) was created during PADA Art Residency in Barreiro, Portugal. It is a symbol of a future in which the feminine, the masculine, and everything in between is valued innately.

On a personal level, this piece reflects my own transformation from fragmentation to wholeness.

In a macro context, the sphere is a blueprint for a new planet in which circularity replaces linearity, abundance replaces lack, and regeneration replaces consumerism. Positioned between two disintegrating pillars, the spherical form attempts to push beyond the structures that contain it.

Oysters, making twenty billion eggs per mating season, represent fertility and abundance. The shells of this sculpture were at one point farmed for human pleasure: eaten as aphrodisiacs or commodified for pearls, before being dumped on the shore. Like many expressions of the feminine existing in a productivity-centred world, these shells were exploited then discarded.

Oysters are also hermaphrodites, making Planeta Ostra a fitting precedent for a future in which the feminine, the masculine, and everything in between is valued innately. In which binaries, such as masculine and feminine, linear and circular, visible and invisible, past and present, coexist without conflict.

This work celebrates intuition, circularity and fluidity as integral values for our planet. The shells are a reminder of the invisible made visible as well as the importance of listening to the quiet whispers of our individual underworlds, nature and the moon, in order to build a more conscious and harmonious future.