Fruit
Vruchten
by Sen McGlinn + Sonja van Kerkhoff, 2006
Cast resin hung objects in "Eating Out", Museum of Design and Architecture, London, April - July 2006
Museum of Domestic Design + Architecture,
London, April 2006.
If 'the fruit of the tree' is the knowledge of good and evil, then "Eating Out" can be interpreted as the ethical debate in the public domain. Our 'fruit-objects' are symbols for cultural influences and inspirations in that debate.
Baha'u'llah wrote that human beings are all 'the fruits of one tree,' using the tree with its branches and fruits as a symbol for the unity and diversity of the human race. So our distinctive 'fruits' symbolise diverse cultural expressions.
The small lamp-shaped object containing 8 small round gold mirrors refers to China. The I Ching yin/yang symbols are drawn onto each mirror: together they form one hexagram, but which depends on your point of view. Another object is much larger, like an organically rounded dinner plate. It bears two texts which cross diagonally.
The text from the Old Testament refers to a river running out of the Garden of Eden and continually dividing, while the New Testament text refers to people being chosen from all parts of the world.
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Other objects have more decorative surfaces: the 'Islamic-inspired' one is full of tiny silver objects, while the 'DNA-inspired' object contains swirls of coloured thread and the New Zealand Maori-inspired object bears delicately woven baskets of knowledge.
More about this work is here | www.sonjavank.com/fruit.htm