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Temptation is a theme that has been overwhelmingly pervasive throughout nearly every form of artistic expression from the classical era up to our modern present. Part of this is likely because it strikes home with every generation, every demographic, and every location around the globe. This sort of worldwide identification and appeal makes the theme of temptation one that can continue far into the future; indeed, it shows no signs of succumbing to the powerful trend of popular culture - if anything, it is being integrated very successfully.
While spiritual and religious themes, symbols, and images were thought taboo and sacrilegious for the majority of the past century, with the coming of new ideas about spirituality around the 1960's, there has been a drift away from this concept. Now, a steadily growing influx of such religious symbolism has been invading popular culture and design since then. It is reclaiming lost ground with a vengeance, and shows absolutely no sign of stopping or slowing. The fact is, with more and more people aware of religion and spirituality but with attitudes that are infused with a growing scepticism about such themes, religions graphics for apparel and other such designs have a hugely widespread appeal throughout the youth and even to some adults.
Taking its cues from this expanding acceptance of religious symbolism in popular culture, this graphic truly combines elements of modern ideals with the ancient theme of temptation. The focus of the graphic is on the words "beyond redemption", rendered in a deep crimson colour and a patchy black. Set against a pure white background, these words would be effective in and of themselves, but an added twist makes them an even more obvious and overt statement. A snake weaves itself in a sexy pattern through the words, forming the letter "n" in "beyond". It slides through the letters, and winds up with its head on the right hand side of the image with a bright red tongue forking out from its mouth.
This snake, the age old biblical symbol for temptation, brings in the an even more provocative idea of passion and of losing yourself in the temptations and pleasures of this world, thus bringing yourself, as the title of the graphic implies, "beyond redemption". The reason that this appeals to many is the fact that a great many people would consider themselves to be unfit candidates for redemption, and this graphic seems to justify this idea.
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