spin with me sister, out of control and into deep space
Portal to Venus, 2026
Artist Unknown
Readymade sculpture, astronomical event
Portal to Venus is a public sculpture installation made to celebrate the reunion of sisters. 10/24/26 marks the inferior conjunction, when Venus moves home from college and can meet the kids. Four long synodic cycles kept the two apart, and their lives are much different in the meantime. One has become her own woman, the other has become their mother.
The kids are noisy, messy, picky eaters and spoiled rotten. They're not making friends at school. They take after their father, night owls and bookworms the lot of them. With big ol’ eyes and pockmarks and running lunatic through the house. It’s hard for them to stay in one place.
Money is fine, but the knee issues are back. Deep vein thrombosis, mineral deficiencies, not enough oil between the joints. Cobalt and cartilage ground down to dust. That's the price of getting old. Goodness, her four and a half billion years were catching up to her. It was all a big joke at her fortieth, with the old lady rollers and shirts that read "Don't Call Me Ma'am!" But the decade has a way of waiting till you're part way through. A couple years in and suddenly it all makes sense.
The days of being hot are behind her. She's got an atmosphere to maintain, a household to run. Goldilocks zoning laws driving up the gas bill; parent-teacher conferences regarding the grades, again. And then her sister walks in smelling of sulphur and high on acid. Laughing. Burning, burning to the touch, so hot she might be feverish. Venus at eight hundred degrees, "Do you want to go out tonight?"
Her orbit now. A window into her world. Not a door — there's no invitation, but that doesn't stop you from coming in. The house in on fire. You're kids again.
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