Forbidden Fruit

2019

Multi-Layer Linoleum Reduction Relief Print

15”x22.5”

In this six layer relief linocut, I address the influence religion has on society’s perception of morality. Growing up surrounded by a religious family and going to a Catholic school for a while, the story of Genesis always stood out to me. There were several problematic parts which undermined the idea of the faith I was being forced into. Besides referring to the moon as a source of light, which today we know is scientifically incorrect, it also contains the story of Adam and Eve being kicked out of the garden of Eden. In this story, the two were happy and carefree, wandering naked and eating whatever they pleased- with the exception of one particular fruit tree in the center of the garden. They eat it anyways, causing God’s notions of morality wash over them, and suddenly they know what is “good” and what is “evil”.  It was only after the concepts of sin and temptation were introduced them that Adam and Eve felt the need to hide their naked bodies. 

Forbidden Fruit depicts Eve immediately after taking a bite as she begins to cover herself. Her newly dictated morals told her there was something inherently wrong with exposing her body in a way that she was comfortable with until then. She accepts this feeling of shame and tries to hide herself, embarrassed of her own body. Rather than listening to her own moral compass, she accepted the one religion had passed down to her. Over time, this can lead to a lack of progressive thought, where old fashioned ideas passed down from generation to generation. And all there is to back up these values is a myth riddled with incorrect facts. 

In this very same same passage, God condemns women to be their husband’s “subject”, which is problematic in and of itself. While this used to be accepted and expected, today it is expected that women are to be treated equally (although there’s still progress to be made). But it shows another example of a fundamental aspect of life and how we interact with each other which was dictated to us through religion. Thankfully, in that case we realized the error in what was accepted as the way things were meant to be and are in the process of readjusting our societal framework accordingly. 

Clothes were invented and women were subjugated well before Genesis was written. But fast forward to today and despite our growing and evolving world, people are still holding on to these passages and are stuck in ways of action and thinking that are outdated and unfair. I challenge the viewer to reconsider where they get their morals from- if they are making their own decisions. Is it the influence of the world around you? Or is it really what you feel in your heart?

Genesis 2-3

The Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil… 

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”... So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 

The man said,“This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”

Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,  but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” 

To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it. Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.