Dimensions: Plexiglass 30cm3; glass mirror 30cm diameter approx.
Date of the work: 2009 Medium: Plexiglass, mirror, apple, and spray paint
Current location: Artist’s Collection
Exhibition history: Earth Garden 2009; Malta Design Week at Lily Agius Gallery (2011); Trasparenza (2022)
Temptation, was first presented as an outdoor installation during the 2009 Earth Garden festival at the Ta’ Qali National Park in Malta. This work is particularly significant in Tabone’s body of work because it marks two traits that have stayed with her art for the years that have followed. The first is her use of plexiglass, specifically transparent plexiglass, which has become her signature material. Secondly, it’s important to note that the same work has been re-exhibited, and when it is re-exhibited, the context changes the way the work is perceived both by the artist and her audiences.
The original concept the artist presented for this work revolved around a biblical quote, which she scribbled onto a circular mirror, placed underneath the suspended plexiglass structure and apple. The quote from the book of Genesis “…of the fruit of the tree which is in the
20 midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye 21 touch…” takes the narrative to the creation myth and the first temptation
that led eve to succumb to the serpent, and then she eventually tempted
Adam to join her in partaking from the forbidden fruit. Many people
who saw the original installations of this piece gave in to the temptation of touching the spray painted appled to see whether it was real; some even went as far as piercing it with their fingernails.
