Temptation Island

Emily Mae Smith synthesizes art historical symbols and references, including Surrealism, to address issues of gender and class, particularly the representation of women in visual culture. Temptation Island recalls the Garden of Eden, reimagining the Bible’s major themes from a feminist perspective. The snake that winds around the central hourglass refers directly to Eve’s temptation, echoed by a bounty of ripe fruit. In the vanitas tradition, an hourglass often symbolizes life’s brevity. Here, the idealized feminine form of the empty hourglass is framed by two rows of white teeth, which Smith describes as “a cartoon for a hyper-masculine, mansplainy mouth—like an early twentieth-century tycoon, bared teeth babbling wide,” underscoring the work’s gender politics. Smith notes that in the twenty-first century, “time’s up,” and the hourglass is ready to be filled with new meanings and possibilities for women.