'AS WE STOOD ON THE THRESHOLD OF PARADISE' Meat, slaughter, bones, and guts. A recurring motif throughout art history. Rembrandt, Soutine, Thek, Berlinde De Bruyckere—they're all surgeons in their own way. And let’s not forget David Cronenberg…

In a hyper-anthropocentric world, where everything revolves around surface feelings and performative sensitivities—where every voice demands to be heard and respected equally, and where people are willing to tear each other to shreds just to prove that there’s still a human inside—it might be worth remembering that we’re all just composites of the same gunk. The same heart. The same lungs, liver, and kidneys. Same blood, same color, same inner machinery.

So what really happened when Eve was convinced by Lilith—or was it Satan?—to take a bite of the apple? Here’s the explanation. Full-on didactic mode. Let me relieve you of the burden of the mystery.

I am sparing you the agony of not knowing, releasing you from the suffering of thinking for yourself. A gift from me to you. Solid communication. It’s a Biblical motif. Isak created an alternative scenario to one of the world’s most well-known stories—the creation of Adam and Eve. The creation of man.

The Bible says that Eve was made from Adam’s rib, establishing a hierarchy between man and woman from that moment onward. But in Isak’s version, Eve was the first human. She wandered through the Garden of Eden, enjoying it as God intended.

But then she got a little too curious.
The serpent (Satan? Lilith?) convinced her to taste the forbidden fruit. God was furious. As punishment, she was forced to give birth to her counterpart—Adam.
Eve had to give birth to her own husband and remain obedient to him until the end of time. On the lower left side, there is a lump of intestines and flesh coming to get them, making them human, making them self-aware. Paradise is lost.

The title - Eve Gives Birth to Adam. So there you have it.

Nothing more. Nothing less.


Igory Mansotti

Interiority Oil and drawing on paper mounted on linen 200x125cm

Moose Oil on linen 60x70cm

Lamb Oil on linen 140x140cm

Eve Gives Birth to Adam Oil on linen in artist made frame 360x120cm

Schutzhaus No. 1 Isak Wisløff - As We Stood On The Threshold of Paradise