This article examines how themes of purification, sacrifice, desire, and the queer self manifest in

artistic representations through three interlocking symbols: the apple, the act of burning, and the

altar. Anchoring its analysis in Paul Ricoeur’s hermeneutic ontology of sin and Ann-Sophie

Lehmann’s theory of material meaning-making, the article traces the apple’s symbolic evolution

from the biblical narrative of Adam and Eve through canonical Western works by Jan van Eyck,

George Frederic Watts, Paul Gauguin, Justus Juncker, John Martin, and Francesco Castiglione,

before examining how contemporary works, including those by Cornelia Parker, Bill Viola, Berni

Searle, and Mark Rothko, reimagine destruction as a site of transformation. The author’s own

practice-led artworks, including Unspoken Sacrifice, The Cost of Purification, Forbidden

Indulgence, and The Sinful Sketch series, extend these discussions by using pyrolysed apples, digital

imagery, and altar-like installations to interrogate the tensions between queer selfhood and

institutionalised religious and societal expectations. The article argues that in these works, burning

functions not merely as destruction but as a ceremonial act of sacrifice that simultaneously critiques

and redeploys the logic of religious purification as it is directed toward marginalised identities.

Keywords: apple symbolism, sacrifice, altar, materiality, practice-led research