Cursed is the Ground grew from my deep fascination with Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights. I was captivated by the presence of thorn-like forms within Bosch’s triptych, particularly how they quietly evolve into violent structures as the narrative moves from Eden to Hell. These works examines the tension between the softness of human flesh, as seen in the intertwined bodies of the Garden, and the sharpness of thorns, which symbolise the fall from pleasure into pain.

The title, Cursed is the Ground, is a direct quote from Genesis 3:17, the moment God curses the earth after Adam’s fall. This moment underpins the creeping evolution of sin and the vulnerability of flesh. Using latex to replicate the flexible, vulnerable qualities of skin, I embed real thorns sourced from local florists to evoke the fragility of desire and the quiet, creeping presence of suffering beneath it. Through this interplay of textures and forms, Cursed is the Ground reflects on the delicate balance be-tween beauty and pain.

By embedding real thorns into latex, a material chosen for its skin-like vulnerability, I explore the fragile boundary between human morality and the transformation from innocence to torment.