Goddess

Niceaunties

Goddess is a four-part video work created by Niceaunties in September 2024 using SORA, OpenAI’s text-to-video model, during its beta testing phase. It was selected for screening at SoraSelects, OpenAI’s official showcase in Tokyo (April 2025), recognising outstanding early works made with the technology. The film tells the story of a divine being who descends to Earth and becomes absorbed in domestic routines—meticulously making fishballs, caring for others, and managing household tasks. Over time, these rituals become so repetitive and invisible that she forgets who she is and where she came from.

One day, she quietly leaves. Upon her return to the celestial realm, she remembers her earthly life only as a blur, an illusion. The work is inspired by the artist’s memory of her grandmother, who raised her and spent decades serving a family of eight. No photos or videos exist of her grandmother performing these acts of care, and Goddess becomes a hopeful, speculative reimagining of that undocumented labour. The title references the term “domestic goddess”—used both sincerely and ironically to describe women who excel at housework. The film reflects on the fine line between devotion and disappearance, questioning how care is recognised, remembered, or erased.

In the final chapter, aunties take over Chinese heaven, joyfully riding sacred animals, summoning lightning, and photographing one another. Blending mythology, memory, and critique, Goddess continues the Auntieverse’s core themes of ageing, invisibility, and reclaiming power through everyday acts.