Curatorial Statement by Andrea Zlotowitz

One of the first stories of the Bible is about the Garden of Eden, a paradise full of prosperous plants and wildlife well suited for a comfortable existence. Famously, Eve foolishly listened to the serpent which tricked her into eating an apple from the tree of knowledge, which God had previously forbidden her and Adam from eating. This sin changed the meaning of life going forward for Adam and Eve and for all humanity. What God expected was that Adam and Eve wouldn’t become curious and gain knowledge about the space they were inhabiting. The Garden of Eden veiled the true scope of existence just like today’s political climate has with its 140 character hot takes and rush to opinions, masking the truth behind respective ideologies.

As expected, with curiosity and the acquisition of knowledge, humans are bound to believe in different ideas and engage in disagreements. The United States’s political stances are extremely polarizing with religion and politics becoming intertwined and muddied in recent years with the word of the Bible entering bills, speeches and resulting in prayer before public officials conduct their business. Many people have taken religious ideas out of context to support a political ideology, and any opposition is seen as anti-religious. 

It is clear that we are not living in any facade of Eden as God intended at the time of creation. The Eden that God created is not the best representation of human ideologies, rather it is a sort of paradox; a paradise with a hidden tree of knowledge that inherently destroys paradise. The Birth of a New Eden is an explorative collaboration by artists Anne Muntges and Kate Bae who will design a space as a melodic ode to the Garden of Eden’s deceptive alternate reality. Muntges and Bae will create a framework for a new Eden fully within their creative control; just as they create the structure for this environment, they also exercise the power to break these boundaries by their own hands as opposed to the demand of a higher power or a persuasive elected official preaching misinformation.