HEIDI VALKENBURG


Naarm Melbourne / Artist

Heidi is a queer, multidisciplinary creative.

Whether it’s acting, writing or directing experimental video or theatre (most recently for Melbourne writers festival, Dark Mofo and NGV Melbourne) penning poetry or splashing colour around mixed media photography, Heidi’s art seems to come from the same world. It’s airy, introspective, dreamy, sensual and an unmistakably female perspective.



𓅔






I am wandering around an ancient festival of sorts. Everything is otherworldly, yet familiar. I find myself in a dimly lit yurt where an old woman looks up from her table of trinkets and tarot cards — cackling. She pauses her laughter after a while; I want to leave but can't seem to move my legs. She looks me sharp in the eyes and declares in a raspy, commanding voice 'I've consulted the cards and it doesn't look great' before resuming her cackle. I wake up with a swollen and bruised right eye that morning.

NOTE: Melbourne Stage 4 Lockdown

(7/8/2020)








There is a large lake with two sides. Icy and somewhat eerie

Shaped like an ovary it stretches out and intentionally curves

Some of my family are there, I think

My younger brother and his girlfriend are the only ones I can properly place 

Some other people I don't know

I take in my surroundings for just a moment before I leap into the water suddenly and theatrically as people stop to watch. I do this even though there is a killer whale I can see swimming deep in the lake. I saw it's large shadow before diving in — and still I did it

I'm in the water and the whale is beneath me, somewhere. After a moment of calm I start to panic and quickly swim to the edge of this odd two sided lake formation

Once I'm out of the water I amble to the other side of the lake, slowly, dripping wet

My brother tells me it's okay — the whale is fake and controlled by a remote control he is holding

The whale isn't real.


NOTE: I dreamt this dream the very first night of solo quarantine, jetlaggy haze, back in Australia in my mums house, in my teenage bedroom, after leaving the USA due to Covid19. I looked up the whales meaning, which implies protection and 'coming home safe' — a nice sentiment, tainted perhaps by the fact the whale wasn't real and controlled by a family member.


(25/3/2020)
© Neptune and Manisha Anjali

© Neptune and Manisha Anjali