What happens when you gold spray paint an apple and hang it on an upside down plexiglass tree? To attempt an answer to this question you need to look at it through a 12-inch round mirror placed on the ground beneath the structure.

Whoever views this installation is likely to be tempted to touch the apple to see whether whether it is a metal object or rather a piece of fruit sprayed with metallic paint.

Allusions to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden are underscored by the inclusion of this biblical verse in acrylic paint written on the mirror:

“…of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch…”

Temptation was originally exhibited at the Earth Garden Festival at Ta’ Qali National Park, Malta, in June 2009. It was exhibited again as part of the Malta Design Week in October 2011 at the Science and Society collective exhibition at Lilly Agius Gallery in Sliema, Malta. The apple was replaced for the second exhibition but destroyed through decay by 2012.