Fallen Fruit of Atlanta

Fallen Fruit(David Burns and Austin Young)

Curated by Stuart Horodner

Oct 19, 2013-Dec 14, 2013

Fallen Fruit is the Los Angeles-based collaborative team of David Burns and Austin Young, whose various projects use fruit as a filter to examine distinct places and histories, issues of representation and ownership, and address questions of public versus private space. ACAC commissioned the artists to develop their first exhibition addressing a Southern context and during the past several months they have visited Atlanta three times; Burns and Young engaged the Antioch Baptist Church North, New Horizon Baptist Church, Atlanta History Center, Hammonds House Museum, Margaret Mitchell House and Museum, Souls Grown Deep Foundation, The Wren’s Nest, WonderRoot, Create Your Dreams, and numerous antique stores, farmer’s markets, and private homes. The resulting exhibition operates as a multi-layered installation pulling paintings, maps, and collected “data” from these archives, collections, and experiences in order to provide insights and draw parallels between past and contemporary Atlanta.

Fallen Fruit of Atlanta will include specially-designed and lavish peach wallpaper (playing with themes of abundance), hand-drawn and photographic portraits, and a range of objects chosen to index the diversity and complexity of Atlanta. Like their previous work in cities including Los Angeles, Hawaii, and Salt Lake City, this Fallen Fruit project features a specific fruit, the peach—with its associations of ripeness, optimism, and pleasure—chosen for its ability to reconfigure relationships of sharing and generosity. Issues of legacy and personal narrative animate many of the artists’ encounters in Atlanta—an inquiry into what becomes documented, celebrated, and spoken about, and conversely what is not. A common understanding is that people construct their own histories, through stories and their cherished objects, be they valuable or common. Photography is a constant and ubiquitous element in Fallen Fruit’s artistic practice—utilized both as documentary process and image production—as well as an informal way of establishing trust with a range of citizens, and asking them to lend specific for inclusion in their installations.

In conjunction with the opening of their exhibition the artists have asked Rev. Sean B. Smith, pastor of New Horizon Baptist Church in Atlanta, to speak on connections between fruit and generosity.

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.