[Fig. 8]

Pepper is a flowering vine, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a seasoning. It was an uncommon and expensive item, affordable only to the wealthy. Pepper is the symbol of excitement and flavour (Seaman and Philbin 2006: ad loc). As such, pepper evokes the things that one is missing in life, some of which may relate to one’s hidden desires as well. This brings to mind Gustave Courbet’s The Origin of the World (1866), a picture focusing on the female model’s bushy and cavernous vagina that is the source of life if it is fertilized by the phallus.

Salt is the only edible mineral, one of its many contradictions. It exists in vast quantities in the sea, and is readily available by the evaporation of seawater. It is emblematic of the seaman and his challenge at sea. Salt is at the root of the Latin term salarium, with reference to money, and its monetary significance led to the expression "being worth one's salt". It is clear that salt is a quality linked to masculinity and a male activity. This prompted Orlan to appropriate Courbet’s work and create its pendant, titled The Origin of War (2016), using the respective naked portion of a male model with his erect phallus as the instrument of aggression. When Heraclitus said, "War is the father and king of all, and has produced some as gods and some as men, and has made some slaves and some free.” (Plutarch 1970:370), he meant that war brings about the necessary change from stagnation. Such change is an indicator of the dynamism in society which may serve for or against its culture.