Adam and Eve: Eve (left) and Adam (right), 1981.
Adam and Eve 1981
Adam and Eve: detail of Adam's distillation stomach. 1981
Adam and Eve: detail of Eve's volta pile spine and passion fruit girdle. 1981
Adam and Eve: early drawing of their latent battery systems. 1981
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ABOUT ADAM AND EVE (1981)
Adam and Eve represents the beginnings of life. Each is a generator, yet dependent on the other. Eve is stimulated by the Toucan (Adam) placing his beak in the orifice of her bulb, causing the pressure to change and thus expanding her thermostat (neck). This connects Eve’s volta pile spine (a battery of copper and zinc plates separated by felt discs dipped in saline) with pumps which draw the juices from her passion fruit girdle into her mammalian protuberances–thus enabling the Toucan to indulge himself.
The liquids taken by the Toucan are distilled and pass as concentrated citric acid into his stomach. This creates a battery cell, enabling the energy to heat further juices, permitting continued existence.
Both Adam and Eve are examples of “latent machinery,” as neither literally function, yet their systems are theoretically operable.
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