Samuel Bak is creating a world that is “falling upward” around this young couple. In a similar fashion other works, the trees float with no roots to hold them down or indicate where they have grown from, and stone is mixed with the surrounding greenery to create an illusion that nature is taking over that which is manmade. In the lower left, the metal silhouette of a man wearing a hat peeks through the branches and leaves, apparently observing the young couple.
The woman holds a green leaf in her hand, a symbol of growth and change, while the man leans against the wall behind him. Her belly looks swollen as if she could be carrying a new life into a world that is changing constantly. The new paradise, to be crafted and molded by her, the man in front of her, and perhaps the child she is carrying. What will they do? What kind of world will they grow? We can only hope, and be observers of their story, and wonder what will happen next.
Camila Martorell (Guest Writer)
BAK a Day, January 4, 2024
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As if there was, in fact, an Old Paradise Bak’s Adam and Eve are present in a remarkable paradise. A "forest" of severed trees and floating fragments of what might have been a lush forest. Trees galore, some with leaves others denuded of bark. A lush yet complex environment to be a Paradise.
Eve offers the Pear - Bak’s fruit of knowledge, of good and evil - gently to the overcoat attired Adam. He seems to show little or no interest.
And if tempted, will he resist this offering? What if he did not taste of the fruit of knowledge? How different would our world be today? Would we continue to kill one another? Would there still be hunger in the richest country in the world? Does, in fact, the knowledge of good and evil assure us of a better world?
Where is the place of truth that can lead to trust and respect? When will we all commit to making this a fairer and better world? How can we be encouraged to work towards a better present for all?
As if there ever was an initial Paradise.
This Paradise is rich in segmentation.
So many of the trees have been cut off or cut up -- yet they remind us of the flourishing trees of the divine Paradise.
Eve offers the Pear as the fruit of knowledge -- of good and evil. What has humankind done with this knowledge given the present war and madness of the Ukraine? What have we learned about our need to dominate and destroy?
Even more terrifying is our enhanced capacity to kill and destroy others…the nuclear threat. Is this overgrown Paradise a prophecy of things to come?
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