PUBLICATIONS 01.
rewriting
the
Genesis
PROJECT: ÆTHER
WITH: SAMSON G BALFOUR SMITH
EVELYN BENCICOVA & SAMSON G BALFOUR SMITH
The source of life.
(etymology "living one" or
"source of life"
"to live")
You watched me burn.
But now
In here.
Befind you (whispering)
In the audio-visual piece, we deal with rewriting or re-translation of the Genesis story, as one of the most harmful myths that lay a foundation for Abrahamic religions but also several preconceptions still present in society to this day. The story of Adam and Eve in Eden, and their fall into eternal punishment, breaking the order of newly found but one and only God. Even the fact that female nipples need to be censored on platforms like Instagram probably has roots in this tale of losing innocence through acts of disobedience.
Who does this story, condemning curiosity, especially when attributed to a female figure serve? Questioning and reshaping, or reclaiming, is our task when we aim for a closer look at this well-known origin story.This could have been entirely different, depending on the power at hand.Most symbols used in Genesis as well as in Æther (like the tree of life/knowing or snake/serpent) come from pre-abrahamic times, taken from ancient beliefs and worships that were re-used further by monotheism with meanings radically changed and twisted often to the opposite direction in service of a new religion. What could not be destroyed needed to change shape to survive, to become encoded.
Interestingly, looking at the meaning of Hebrew words, quite a different story (or at least the possibility) comes through to the surface. Adam as earth, humanity and Eve as life, eating as perceiving, fruit/information, and the multi-layered symbol of the serpent – pharmakon: poison and a cure. The retranslation of Æther departs from here when telling the story of human life in the fall from the guided garden, fall from innocence into knowing one-self, painful as well as empowering - freeing oneself in such separation.
In the second layer of this tale about consciousness, another story emerges – the one of Eve transformed from the burden of sin and shame. She becomes the hero of the story righteously, , as she has been and the one most harmed by it. What sets her free is the knowledge that gives her the courage to act and to question the construct that kept her constrained, physically, socially, and mentally by someone else's control, fear, or imagination. She breaks from the prison of power put on her through guilt and reclaims her body and perspective, inviting the journey of curiosity. Our access to information and exchange allows us to change some of the deeply rooted narrative structures retroactively. Still, making a natural effect in their workings will take decades or centuries, but every change needs to start somewhere, and most often, it is in ourselves. Æther's chapter 0 creates this.
Video by
EVELYN BENCICOVA & SAMSON G BALFOUR SMITH