ARTi Gallery
Original South African Art: Sarah Hage - Continuum and Perpetuity
Original South African Art: Sarah Hage - Continuum and Perpetuity
Artist: Sarah Hage
Title: Continuum and Perpetuity (The Creation of Adam Reimagined)
Size: 15 cm in length, about 8cm wide
Medium: Acrylic on ostrich eggshell
Price: R5200
Wooden mount
Description:
My rendition of Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam” (1508) is meant to illustrate the continuum of space, time, the heavens and the earth. It is to comment on the continuum of Divinity with Mortality.
In the original artwork, the hand of Adam appears lazy, failing to reach the outstretched hand of God. Some historians believe that this fresco was meant to symbolise the divine breath of life with God’s hand just barely failing to touch Adam’s hand. In this rendition, the laziness of man is maintained, but God and man do touch - this is to symbolise that divinity is bestowed upon us within our mortal shells, it is intrinsic within the very fibre of our being, our souls, but man is arrogant or ignorant thereof.
The contact happens in the background of a sun which is neither rising, nor setting. It is also a typical African backdrop on an ostrich eggshell - this is to incorporate African elements within the original European or Renaissance setting so as to strengthen the theme of continuity.
Similarly, the choice of an eggshell carries this symbolism - what came first, the ostrich or the egg?
The inspiration to create this rendition of “The Creation of Adam” comes from a need to comment on how we are merely a cog in this perpetual continuum of time, space, heaven and earth.
Sarah Hage is a South African Artist and a Top 100 finalist in the AGAC 2023.