The exhibition at The Container showcases a recent poster diptych Zevs has designed and pasted on the streets of New York City, entitled Adam & Eve (2013). One of the images of the diptych depicts a “liquidated” version of Apple’s logo, while the other makes a reference to the renaissance painting Adam and Eve from 1526 by the German painter Lucas Cranach the Younger. We instantly recognize the iconic composition of Cranach’s painting, a young man and a woman, somewhat erotically, sharing an apple, the fruit of wisdom. The context, however, is new—the couple is situated in the Apple store in NYC, with the company’s logo hovering over their heads and reflected again on the glass walls. The apple they are sharing is none other than Apple’s logo illuminated from an iPhone, while the leaves that conceal the genitals in the original painting have been replaced by iPads casting male and female genitals taken from internet porn. The irony is fervent and thought provoking.

In addition to the posters Zevs is mounting a relating installation inside the container: a laptop, covered with gesso and the Apple logo projected on it. In first view, the projected image seems to be an illuminated logo, similarly to the one you would find on some of the corporation’s actual laptops, though as one approaches the treated laptop for closer observation, one’s body serves as a partition and the logo, which is projected from above, disappears. The allegorical subtext that emerges evokes again the illusion consumerism encompasses, and presents it as an unattainable entity.

Supported by Institut français du Japon – Tokyo and Kansai
Courtesy of The Container