"No one treats us like we're kooky anymore," says Matias Viegener, co-founder of the L.A.-based art collective Fallen Fruit.
Fallen Fruit was conceived in 2004 by Viegener and fellow Silver Lake artists David Burns and Austin Young as an art project to map fruit growing in public spaces, with the message that one person's yard waste is another's dinner. Over the last five years, public interest in the project has grown steeply as sustainable food sources and frugality have come increasingly into fashion. The three artists started by hand drawing neighborhood maps studded with fruit trees, posting them on their website and leading tours past branches overburdened with fruit, meeting neighbors and harvesting excesses along the way.
"Now we seem really pragmatic," Viegener says, laughing. "It's nice."
The collective -- which they're quick to point out isn't a nonprofit organization but rather an ongoing art collaboration -- has since staged countless events including jam-making sessions at galleries, a South American residency to examine fruit farming, and a compelling and cheeky interactive banana exhibit at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions last summer.
But this year, they're tackling LACMA. Participating in Machine Project's 2008 "A Field Guide to LACMA" exhibit sparked talks with the museum to create EATLACMA, Fallen Fruit's nine-month series of events kicking off this weekend with tree adoptions, followed by lectures, tours, artist-curated gardens and food-themed art installations.
"All of our projects involve fruit, but EATLACMA examines food in general," Viegener says. "The art of the table, the center piece, even dinner music; food is a very primal form of culture because it connects us."
"It's central to everyone's lives," adds LACMA curator Michele Urton.
EATLACMA will commence with two tree giveaways this weekend: One at Watts Towers on Saturday and another at LACMA on Sunday. Fallen Fruit will distribute trees that will one day bear peaches, nectarines, apples, tangerines and plums to anyone willing to plant them in public space or "on the perimeter." That term, used often in Fallen Fruit discourse, refers to the edges of property lines, where branches overhang into public space and the excesses can easily and legally be shared by the community.
"The message is: If everyone planted a fruit tree in a public space, it would change the city," says Fallen Fruit co-founder David Burns. "It would change our relationship to the city, it would change our children's relationship to it."
Recipients sign a form pledging to care for their new tree and keep the collective updated. The progress of the tree is tracked, becoming a part of Fallen Fruit's overall art project.
EATLACMA continues in March, when several artist-curated gardens will take root on the LACMA campus. Plans include a hanging garden of bitter melons, tomato yards and a fountain filled with live tilapia, which will be collected and cooked for a fish tacos-meets-art event. The artists will also organize events and tours throughout the course of the year, with each garden intended to create a "unique conversation," says Burns.
On June 27, the collective will unveil "The Fruit of LACMA," an exhibit representing a veritable harvest of food-related art from LACMA's permanent collection. More than 50 works, including decorative art, classical paintings and even Harold E. Edgerton's iconic "Shooting the Apple" photograph, will serve to examine how humans interact with food on various levels.
Fallen Fruit is also creating its own multimedia assemblage. "We already knew how much food there is in art," says Viegener, "but we never see anyone eating."
They'll be soliciting video submissions of strangers dining, described by Burns simply as "sixty seconds, head and shoulders, food in the face." The user-submitted footage will become a montage, screened on a loop.
"It's a great way for people to say, 'Oh, my work's up at LACMA. That's my self portrait!,' " Burns says. They're hoping to collect submissions from different corners of the globe.
EATLACMA will also include a jam-making session and a summertime event dubbed "Salsa Salsa," which delivers a one-two punch of tomato harvesting for pico de gallo, alongside Latin dance instruction.
The series concludes in November with "Let Them Eat LACMA," as food from the various gardens will be put to practical use.
"For the final aspect, the public gets to eat the art," says Fallen Fruit co-founder Young.
With exhibits that grow and unfold over the course of the year, Fallen Fruit and LACMA hope to draw art lovers, environmentalists and curious foodies into settings that otherwise might not bring them together.
"What we're excited about is not just the offshoot conversations about public space and sustainability and carbon footprints," says Burns. "But it's also the fact that one of the things we love to do is make jam with people we don't know."
--Alie Ward
Michele Urton, curator at LACMA, with from left to right- David Burns, Austin Young,
and Matias Viegener, of the art/activist collective Fallen Fruit, on the grounds
of LACMA on January 29, 2010. Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times.
