Journal Article

THE Subversive Beauty of Fallen Fruit

Watts, Shirley

2022

Overview

Halfway through Agnès Varda's film The Gleaners and I, a judge in full regalia stands in a field of newly harvested tomatoes and reads an edict from 1554 that authorizes \"the poor, the wretched, and the underprivileged to go to the fields after the harvest, from sunrise to sundown, and glean leftover fruit and vegetables.\" The artists David Allen Burns and Austin Young of Fallen Fruit have joyfully adopted the ancient practice of gleaning and brought it to contemporary urban neighborhoods. They invite you to experience your city as a fruitful place and to radically shift public participation and the function of urban spaces, and to explore the meaning of community through creating and sharing new and abundant resources--like fruit trees. Fallen Fruit began in 2004 when Burns, Young, and Matias Viegener, who left the collaboration in 2013, created a map of their Los Angeles neighborhood showing fruit on the margins of public space that could be harvested. Through their ongoing project Endless Orchard, Fallen Fruit continue to map urban fruit trees, organize community fruit tree plantings, and talk about public spaces as shared resources.

• Publisher: National Academy of Sciences,Issues in Science and Technology
• Subject: Art galleries & museums / Artists / Beauty / Burns, David Allen / Citizen participation / Colonialism / Community Relations / Cultural Centers / Disadvantaged / Exhibitions / Fruit / Fruit trees / Fruits / Harvest / Harvesting / Healthy food / Installations (Art) / Neighborhoods / Public participation / Public spaces / Tomatoes / Trees / Urban areas / Vegetables / Wallcoverings / Young, Austin