In one sense, I wanted to depict the contrast between how God intended Adam and Eve's relationship to be, and how Adam and Eve's relationship actually turned out to be, immediately before the Fall and after. While both are intended to have a harmonious relationship with one another and are made to sync with one another perfectly, we know it's not perfect. There are holes, gaps, mistrust, deception, etc. For example, as I made this sculpture, I had in mind the chaos that slowly started to build after Adam and Eve ate the fruit--when both began vigorously accusing each other ("Thus they in mutual accusation spent / The fruitless hours" [9.1187-1188]). I tried to visually show Adam and Eve's individual imperfections by representing them as two, separate parts of the sculptures (though, it's up to the viewer to decide which is Adam and Eve). In the left part of the sculpture, the most obvious imperfections are the holes, and in the right, it is the odd, "incomplete" shape. Still, despite these imperfections, the sculpture is able to stand, because both lean on one another, signifying the idea at the poem's end that only in union can Adam and Eve overcome their imperfections ("They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow, / Through Eden took their solitary way" [12.648-649]).
Through the positioning of the sculptures, I wanted to also raise the question of whether or not Adam and Eve are truly equal. From certain angles, both pieces seem at the same height; however, this view can easily be distorted if the viewer were to stand to one side of the sculpture. In that case, we would only one how one piece lies on top of the other; we couldn't see how, on the other side, it's actually the other way around. While adding these aspects to the sculpture, I had in mind the following lines: "Though both / Not equal, as their sex not equal seemed; / For contemplation he and velour formed; / For softness she and sweet attractive grace; / He for God only, she for God in him" (4.293-297). Although Adam and Eve are supposed to be equal (as Adam's loneliness couldn't be alleviated otherwise), it is clear that they are not equal in many ways, from the extent to which they reflect God's image to the supposed amount of reason both innately have. This, generally, is an ambiguous and contentious theme throughout the play, and accordingly, I wanted to make this aspect of my sculpture ambiguous as well--that is, dependent on the viewer's perspective.
Finally, by making my sculpture relatively abstract and avoiding any explicit human depictions, there is one key feature about Adam and Eve's relationship that is lost in my depiction: all of the gender politics. It's impossible to say with 100% confidence which one is Adam or Eve. As a result, the association between gender and one's position in the natural hierarchy of things--an association that can readily be made when reading the text--cannot be made using my sculpture. In other words, both characters lose the contribution their gender potentially makes to their position on the hierarchy of life. Thus, this sort of inhuman adaptation allows us to see past gender, and view Adam and Eve for their true qualities irrespective of gender--which also raises the implicit question of whether it is possible, in Paradise Lost, to separate gender from status and power.