Artist L. Michèle Franklin
Accession number 1987-104
The creation stories contained in the Bible quickly lead to a founding act of exile as Adam and Eve are banished from the Garden of Eden. In this watercolour by L. Michèle Franklin, Adam and Eve, naked with heads in hands, lamenting their loss, are leaving Eden. This is an archetypal image of forced migration, with those who have become migrants mourning the loss of the home they loved. They head into a future that is undepicted as it is unknown, a void that contrasts with the abundance of the garden from which they are now excluded. In the traditional Christian understanding of this scene, as representatives of humanity, Adam and Eve, through their choices, bear the responsibility for their banishment which is why their grief is so great; what has happened to them could have been otherwise if they had made different choices. In this they differ from many contemporary migrants, who are the victims of actions taken by others.
One reading of this story suggests that we are all migrants, outside of a truly harmonious relationship with the world we inhabit but looking to return to our harmonious origins. On this reading, Franklin’s image reveals to us our current plight and urgent need to get ourselves back to the garden.
