Over the summer, Fallen Fruit was excited to hear that the City of Los Angeles was expected to approve a long-awaited revision to the law that, right now, prohibits the planting and cultivation of any fruit-bearing trees or plants in public space. In July, we got word that City Council was set to adopt a new list of recommended trees, including apricots, almonds, lemons, avocados, and other types of fruit trees that thrive in California. This was just in time for us to plant the more than one hundred fruit trees we wanted to give away around Central LA!

At the last minute, one Councilmember asked that this new tree policy revision be put on hold until more tree-planting guidelines could be written and reviewed. This was after the City’s Bureau of Street Services, which manages street and tree maintenance, said that it would welcome requests to plant fruit trees immediately.

Tree planting in the City of Los Angeles works like this: you can plant anything you want in your own yard. If you want to plant something in what’s called the “public right of way,” which includes the strip of grass between the sidewalk and street, you’re required to get permission from the City and only certain varieties can be planted.

Los Angeles is way behind a number of other cities in this regard. In other communities, not only fruit trees but entire vegetable gardens can be cultivated at the edge of the street, allowing people to grow, eat and share their own food.

Fallen Fruit has been waiting for the city to address this long-stalled issue. Public and administrative support for fruit trees has been demonstrated. The City agency whose job it is to maintain trees and sidewalks has said YES. We have fruit trees ready to put in the ground!

Fallen Fruit

2013 urban agriculture day resolution

FF_planttheperimeter

Lemonade Stand and Public Fruit Tree planting! Join us!

Wednesday, October 15th   3-5 PM
Buchwald-Wright Gallery, Gund Gallery

Feast: Radical Hospitality in Contemporary Art  July 25, 2014–November 30, 2014 at Gund Gallery

Feast: Radical Hospitality in Contemporary Art is organized by the Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago. The exhibition is curated by Stephanie Smith, former Smart Museum Deputy Director and Chief Curator. 

Featuring interviews with the Los Angeles art collaborative Fallen Fruit (David Burns and Austin Young), this behind-the-scenes look at “Fallen Fruit of the Skirball”—curated by Linde Lehtinen and on view at the Skirball Cultural Center May 13-October 12, 2014—traces the evolution of the multi-phase project. Inspired by a seventeenth-century ketubbah (marriage contract) in the Skirball Museum collection, the public participatory art commission features a specially designed pomegranate wallpaper, a salon-style display of portraits of people who love each other, and a “Love Score” that artfully incorporates the public’s thoughts on love and relationships.

Los Angeles art collaborative Fallen Fruit (David Burns and Austin Young) and the Skirball Cultural Center have come together to produce an immersive art installation that celebrates Jewish heritage, relationships, and love. Experience this new public participatory art commission through October 12. Free to the public. more info here.

Fallen Fruit is an art collaboration originally conceived in 2004 by David Burns, Matias Viegener, and Austin Young. Since 2013, David and Austin have continued the collaborative work.

Lemonade Stand!

Commissioned by Riverside Art Museum for Riverside Art Make – Riverside Art Museum

Saturday, October 18^th  11am to 3pm

Join us At Cesar Chevez Community Center
2060 University Ave., Riverside, Ca

see other Lemonade Stand photos here

We are interested in temporary community and new forms of public. In exchange for drawing a self-portrait onto a lemon, each participant receives a glass of organic lemonade. Collectively, the lemon self-portraits create a new form of public that illustrate some of the archetypes that construct community. Hand-drawn expressions illustrate joy and innocence as well as wisdom and age. A microphone installed at the stand records real-time story telling. Story telling prompts such as: Describe the “best” day in your life? Or the opposite: In life sometimes there are days of profound difficulty and how did this moment change the way you see yourself? The Lemonade Stand activates the phrase… “when life gives you lemons…”

Dear Fruit Friends,

After an incredible 323 days, featuring over 50 artists and more than 150 works of art, the LA 2050 Arts:REstore LA & Hammer Museum installment of Fallen Fruit’s Fruitique! is coming to a close.

We would like to thank Allison Agsten, Gloria Gerace, Sarah Stiffler and the entire Hammer Museum for the opportunity and on-going support.  Also Steve Sans, UCLA Student Association Westwood Village, Topa Property Mgmt, and everyone who helped make our first Fruitique! a success.

Please come by on Friday, September 19th or Saturday, September 20th from 11-7pm, and have a fresh squeezed mimosa to toast our final days in Westwood, before we move on. All items will be discounted 25%.

Fallen Fruit’s Fruitique! is an on-going, collaborative, art installation that combines hand-picked vintage items with contemporary fine art and every-day objects that use fruit as a theme.  Keep your eyes peeled for another installment in a new city soon!

With Love and Fruit,

David and Austin and The Fallen Fruit Team

Fallen Fruit’s Fruitique  (online here)
10920 Kinross Avenue @ Gayley in Westwood Village
Los Angeles, CA 90029
*parking is $3 at the Hammer Museum around the corner.

September 14, 2014 at Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area!
12-3pm
Come make jam with us!
and Learn about the Park To Playa and Public Fruit orchard.
Find us near the upper parking lot.
RSVP for free parking :
4100 S. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90056
#parktoplaya

Lemonade Stand!
Sunday August 24th at Kenneth Hahn Recreation Park!
10am – 2pm
Lemonade Stand by Fallen Fruit : In exchange for drawing your self portrait on a lemon, we will give you a cold glass of lemonade. Join us!

4100 S. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90056
#parktoplaya

TIME:
6.30–7.30pm (1:30 AM PST)
WHEN:
Thursday 17 July
WHERE:
Cinema A, GOMA
ENTRY:
Free, no bookings required
Food can express our identities and cultivate communities, but how does it really shape who we are?

Join ABC Radio National’s Weekend Arts host Sarah Kanowski and guests as they discuss how food has played a vital role in shaping cultural identities.

Held in conjunction with ‘Harvest: Art, Film + Food’ at GOMA until 21 September.

Missed a past GOMA Talks session?
Catch up online on QAGOMA TV.

HAVE A QUESTION?
ASK THE PANEL #GOMATalks

HEAR FROM
Fallen Fruit (David Burns and Austin Young)
LA-Based artist collective and exhibiting ‘Harvest’ artists
Joining the session live via Skype
Dr Diane Kirkby
Reader in History, La Trobe University
Joanna Savill
Editor, Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide
Paul West
Chef and host of River Cottage Australia

take a tour of Pineapple Express! at QAGOMA HERE.