Catalog Entry from If These Walls Could Talk Exhibit, Neill-Cochran House 2020:

The carved images of Adam and Eve on these pieces (which are porcelain that has been glazed to look like cast iron) are taken from a medieval German cathedral door. There, a wiry figure of God jabs a pointy finger at the frightened pair and lays on the curse of mortality. The humans crouch in shame and in haste pass the blame onto a snake. While carving the relief of Adam into the clay kettle, I realized I had intended to put Eve on the kettle. Adam belonged on the teapot with its wicked little spout. So, I got to play God and created a female out of the male. As luck would have it, the clay was still supple and the two figures had similar poses. Then I carved Adam again on his teapot. I regretted not having a place to put the God figure, as he is the most forceful character of the three at Hildesheim. But I did at the last minute include the serpent, winding around Eve’s feet. So, three of the four main characters are represented; the primary one left unseen. The issue of blame, of hypocrisy, is in here, in the cliché that inspired the piece, and in the gestures of the little people from Hildesheim. (Artist’s note from 1994) Like many idioms we simply absorb from our culture, this one needs to be checked for racial offense. Is the use of the word black derogatory in this? A cast iron pot IS black —that is inherent to its nature. A black person isn’t the object, a sooty dark pot is. Blackness is often read as automatically bad, and in metaphors we use, there needs to be thought given to how darkness is portrayed.