Fallen Fruit of Utah, solo exhibition, 2011

 An eclectic collection of art, craft and domestic objects depicting fruit in various forms, assembled against a backdrop of specially designed wallpaper.  Created for the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, the work was selected from the collections of ten regional museums and numerous Utah residents.  Among the themes they explore are the social meaning of the watermelon, the role of the grape and wine, the symbolism of fruit orchards, and the variety of interpretations found in the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Life.

Fallen Fruit of Utah brings together two types of collections through the common ground of fruit. One is sweeping – museums and historical archives – and the other is personal and intimate. Fruit is seen both as deeply symbolic and simply decorative, both ordinary and special, sometimes at the same time. Eight historic collections and archives and over twenty families agreed to collaborate with the artists of Fallen Fruit to assemble works that range from spiritual and symbolic to representational landscapes to the commonplace (or everyday objects). This exhibition draws our attention to the meaning of fruit, a way to investigate symbolism, the aesthetics of deliciousness, and the bounty and goodness of the familiar.

MEET THE ARTISTS OF FALLEN FRUIT on the corner of 9th South and 9th East for a Nocturnal Fruit Forage. Bring a picker and some old grocery bags and hunt for free fruit in the public way.

When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not pick your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger.
–Leviticus 19:9-10