Emmacelli's Venus

Emma: On the weekend I went to Bondi with my flatmate, Alison. We looked at famous artists who drew art on the walls. It's called the Bondi Beach Sea Wall and it's next to the sand. I made a photo of myself with the Venus from Botticelli.It's not the real one of Botticelli's but it's similar. She's got long hair and she's standing on a clam shell. She's in a sexy bikini though, and she's drinking a cocktail. It's part of art because - why is it part of art? Is it because she's a goddess?

Anna: It's part of art because the Bondi wall artist is inspired and paying respect to Botticelli's Venus, the original one. He's changed it a bit though to talk about how we have very beautiful young female creatures coming out of the sea as well, Bondi Venuses.

Emma: Eros as well?Anna: The god Eros, yes.Emma: What's an Eros?

Anna: That is the god of, believe it or not, strong physical connection. Eros is not ONLY sex, it's everything that affects your senses, it's about how your body reacts to beauty, taste, and ideas, everything. The Greeks were pretty smart about this stuff.

Emma: Really? It's Plato, is it?

Anna: Well he was one of Ancient Greece's most famous philosophers.

Emma: What's a philosopher?

Anna: A philosopher is a person who thinks about how we think and feel and explores ethics and how we should think logically and clearly about what is right and wrong.

Emma: I want to talk more about Botticelli's Venus and this guy here on my notebook. My mum gave it to me.

Anna: It's very beautiful. It says "Genuine Leather. Made in Italy." How beautiful is this woman next to Venus? She's the attendant to Venus.

Emma: What's an attendant?

Anna: That's like a Lady-in-Waiting. It's a very important maid who is like the helper of the queen or the bride or in this case, of Venus coming out of the clam shell.

Emma: In museums? They have a wonderful history in museums they do?

Anna: Yes absolutely. Do you want to look up where they keep Botticelli"s Venus?

Emma: Oh Yes.

Anna: It says it's in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. It's called The Birth of Venus. It says that Venus is being born naked on the shore.

Emma: It's not that embarrassing is it?

Anna: No because we're all born without clothes on. Anyhow, the lady with the clothes to put on her is a handmaid who is called Ora. It says here something about In the meadow there are violets -

Emma: They look like roses.

Anna: Really? Take a good look because they should be blue or a purple-blue -

Emma: I love blue. They're on the ground somewhere. They're pretty hard to tell, to see.

Anna: Yes, especially because it's a photo. I wish we could see the real thing, then we would see the violets. Maybe they are talking about the beautiful flowers on the lady Ora's dress as well.

Emma: You know the Shelley poem?Anna: Which one?

Emma: This one, The Birth of Aphrodite.

Look, look why shine

Those floating bubbles with such light divine?

They break, and from their mist a lily form

Rises from out the wave, in beauty warm.

The wave is by the blue-veined feet scarce press’d,

Her silky ringlets float about her breast,

Veiling its fairy loveliness, while her eyeIs soft and deep as the heaven is high.

The Beautiful is born; sea and earth

May well revere the hour of that mysterious birth.

By Percy Bysshe Shelley

Anna: Okay, why don't we base our poem on Shelley's and change it a bit?

Emma: I want to change it to India. Do you want to?

Anna: Let's try it.

The Birth of Emmacelli's Venus

by Emma Brodie and Anna Maria Dell'oso

Look, why shine these floating hearts with such sweet sorrow divine?

They break, and from their mist a lily-pad forms.

From the Indian Ocean, a volcano lava warms

The lily-pad; protects her naked feet from the coral of the reef.

Her seaweed hair curls around her body like a sheath

Covering her classic coral delicacy, while her eyeIs deep and private as the ocean where it meets the sky.

The Glamorous is born; sand and sea

May well reveal the hour of that veiled birth to me.

Anna: Goodness me, Emma, that was so hard to do.

Emma: Yes, it was. It hurt my brain, you know.

Anna: It was a total brainstormer for both of us.

Emma: What's a brainstorm?

Anna: It's being creative by having lots of weird and wonderful ideas and disagreements and not wanting to do it and then working really hard to do it - just like we did then. We had a brainstorm in writing poetry that is not easy. Was it worth it?

Emma: What's 'worth it?'

Anna: It's the price you pay for getting something amazing. Your brain got stormed but it was worth it, right?

Emma: Yes. It's Emmacelli's Venus.