UNEARTHING EDEN

“Unearthing Eden” seeks to deconstruct the notion of the 'Garden of Eden' with the aim of re-evaluating humanity's dichotomy with nature by uncovering its roots in Edenic dominion. It explores the significance and repercussions of literary, visual, and spatial imaginaries of Eden in an age of ecological crises. Through a comprehensive analysis of the Edenic narrative, investigating its historical representations and interpretations and their echoes in settler colonial landscapes, this study employs critical perspectives to challenge entrenched Edenic dualities such as nature–culture, human–animal, and their associated heteronormative impositions, and exploitation of marginalized communities, non-human entities, and their lands. Seeking to contribute to recent scholarship on colonial paradisal entanglements, this study underscores the Edenic origins in pre-Abrahamic myths, highlighting their role in historical environmental collapses in the West Asian Mesopotamian-Persian region. Additionally, it explores Edenic spatial manifestations in contemporary environmental consciousness, both individually and collectively, to the detriment of the environment. By recognizing the historical significance of visual culture and the painting medium in conveying the Edenic narrative and shaping cultural relationships with the environment the project utilizes painting as an analytical tool and an artistic medium towards the curation and production of a body of work that interrupts, reframes, and reconsiders the Edenic worldview.