In Sorrow You Shall Bring Forth Children

Eve, 2022

size: 200 cm length/40 cm width/77 cm heigth
Materials: Iron wires, tin cans, metal from tin can, food packaging, compressed cardboard

Every culture has its original sin, whether it be Jewish, Christian, or Hellenistic original sin, and this original sin has a certain consequence. The Greek and Jewish original sins both lead to knowledge. The punishment for them is different, but both brought about human awareness of nakedness and that humans are in God's image yet separate and different from Him and controlled by others. This creation refers to the combination of two sins: the sin of Pandora (from Greek mythology) who received a gift from the gods—a box filled with all kinds of evil things, and when she opened it, diseases, grief, and mourning were released into the world; and in contrast, the sin of Adam and Eve (from the Book of Genesis) which resulted in punishment through expulsion from the Garden of Eden, as well as the woman being punished with "in sorrow you shall bring forth children" and man with "by the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread."

I received the inspiration for this creation from a winter storm named Elpis that reached us from Greece (Elpis is the spirit of hope that was trapped in Pandora's box).

I chose to place the box from Pandora's box inside the sculpture, both in the belly as a womb and in the mouth as a resonance chamber echoing the cry of birth pain. I chose to make present the combination between the two original sins by positioning the jar on one hand as a womb and on the other hand as a resonance chamber through which Eve echoes the first cry of childbirth.