Part of Fallen Fruit Presents EATLACMA, a curated exhibition 2010

We examine the curious persistence of fruit in art by assembling work from LACMA’s permanent collection, with a span of five centuries and work in several media (painting, photography, and decorative arts). This exhibition examines the symbolic, abstract and sociological aspects of fruit in art – from religious symbolism to embedded social messages. It includes a LACMA-commissioned piece from Fallen Fruit, as well as custom-designed wall paper which David, Matias and Austin assembled from fruit found growing in the streets of their neighborhood.

EATLACMA was a yearlong residency in which Fallen Fruit created new work and curated this exhibition as well as a group of artist’s gardens and a final one-day event, Let Them Eat LACMA. It was intiated by curator Charlotte Cotton and completed with LACMA curators Michele Urton and José Luis Blondet. Visit the website www.eatlacma.org for an overview of the entire project- videos, tweets, artist’s blogs and images.

Show Us How You Eat, participatory online video project, 2010

Though there are endless images of food in art, and even still images of food in people’s mouths, we realize there is very little documentation of people actually eating.   In Show Us How You Eat we solicit participants around the world on Facebook to send us one-minute clips of them eating – not preparing, cutting, or cooking, but actually eating, chewing and swallowing food.  These clips are combined into an endless stream of smiling mastication, a meditation on the act of eating that connects each and every one of us.

Public Fruit Maps, various cities in the US, PDF, dimensions variable, 2004 - ongoing

One of the core projects to Fallen Fruit is to map neighborhoods to which we are invited; in them we map all the fruit trees which grow in or over public space.  The maps are hand-drawn and distributed free from copyright electronically as jpgs and PDFs. They are regularly reproduced in newspapers and magazines and have been exhibited in many museums and gallery exhibitions internationally.  They dimensions of the maps are variable and range from 8 x 10to 40 x 60.  This is an ongoing project.

>>> DOWNLOAD MAPS HERE!

American Family, giclee print, 40” x 60”, 2008
Large format composited digital photograph restaging Gericault’s Raft of the Medusa and an inquiry to the state of the American Family, especially in regard to the food or rather fruit they eat (or don’t eat). The image has 4 characters which represent the 4 characters in Gericault’s painting who are looking towards the horizon for rescue. In Gericault’s painting these characters have they backs to the viewer, however in American Family the parents and the children look past the viewer for hope and perhaps rescue from an unknown agent, in this case the viewer.

Introducing EATLACMA in February are two Public Fruit Tree Adoptions, a fruit tree giveaway held at Watts Towers and the LACMA campus. Fallen Fruit will distribute free bare-root fruit trees, requesting they be planted in public space or on the perimeter of private property. These events were chosen to open EATLACMA in order to honor the beginning of the growth cycle, as well as to signal the project’s commitment to changing the shape of our city.


The Watts Towers Public Fruit Tree Adoption is on Saturday, Feb 6 from 12-3 and is sponsored by TreePeople Los Angeles; the address is 1761 East 107th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90059. The LACMA Public Fruit Tree Adoption is on Sunday Feb 7 from 12-3 and will take place at the Los Angeles Times Central Court at LACMA.

February 2010 – November 2010

EATLACMA is a year-long investigation into food, art, culture and politics. Fusing the richness of LACMA‘s permanent collection with the ephemerality of food and the natural growth cycle, EATLACMA’s projects consider food as a common ground that explores the social role of art and ritual in community and human relationships.  EATLACMA unfolds seasonally, with artist’s gardens planted and harvested on the museum campus, hands-on public events, and a concurrent exhibition, Fallen Fruit Presents The Fruit of LACMA (June 27-November 7, 2010). It culminates in a day-long event (November 7, 2010) in which over fifty artists and collectives will activate, intervene, and re-imagine the entire museum’s campus and galleries. EATLACMA is curated by Fallen Fruit: David Burns, Matias Viegener and Austin Young and LACMA curators Michele Urton and Jose Luis Blondet.