Fruit is many things for many people: it's both familiar and emotional; it appeals to all of our senses; it's seemingly natural yet highly "unnatural" (e.g. the history of the spread of a fruit tree species can frequently be traced along routes of imperial expansion, while contemporary growing methods are highly mechanized and controlled). Fallen Fruit, a Los Angeles based art collaboration currently represented by David Burns and Austin Young, uses fruit, and its multivalent and often contradictory associations, as a common denominator to change the way we see the world.
Fallen Fruit began creating maps of public fruit trees growing on/over public space in Los Angeles neighborhoods in 2004. Like their local fruit cartographies, much of Fallen Fruit’s work examines issues of urban space and community and incites public participation, as in their public fruit jams of lemonade stand at the 2013 Athens Biennale. They are also known for their photographic portraits, experimental documentary videos, and curatorial work. In these diverse projects, fruit serves as a filter to examine distinct places, official and unofficial collections, archives and histories, as well as issues of representation and ownership.
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