In April of 2012 Fallen Fruit, comprised of artists David Burns, Matias Viegener and Austin Young, and the Coleman Center for the Arts (CCA) offered the event “Gobble Gobble Cobbler.” Residents were invited to prepare and share fruit cobblers, and then reflect on their childhood memories of fruit. Through sharing personal stories participants discussed childhood memories, York’s former state of natural abundance and the loss of public or local fruit in the landscape. The conversation provided quotes to be inscribed on a series of public picnic tables for York.
The final tables provide a meditative investigation of personal and cultural identity through food, and a functional public art piece for the citizens of York. A snapshot of the conversation from “Gobble Gobble Cobbler,” the inscriptions are humorous and contemplative, sincere and clever, nostalgic and instructive. The conversation reflected the Fallen Fruit’s view on the agency of fruit to reveal personal and cultural ideas. In their own words, “Everyone has a fruit story. Many of these are linked to place and family, and many echo a sense of connection with something very primal.”
Several participants shared childhood memories:
“When I was a child, one of the joys in life was shaking the peaches off the tree.”
“If you eat too many cherries they give you a little head buzz. We loved to get up in that tree, and before you knew it we fell out.”
“It’s just a flash I have of being so short, and reaching with all my might to get those mulberries.”
Others imparted wisdom:
“The simple things taste the best. It doesn’t have to be caviar and champagne all the time.”
“If it don’t produce it gotta be pruned back.”
“You have to eat an apple a day. It’s the truth. It freshens your breath. It wakes you up better then coffee”
“There was always an element of danger — snakes. They’re always around that fruit.”
Several of the most striking remarks paint a picture of former York as a place of magical abundance that stands in contrast to the area’s current widespread economic challenges.
“You see grass everywhere there used to be fields. Peas. Corn. Peaches. Apples.”
“You could find them everywhere. People would just throw out seeds. You could just go around town and watermelons would be growing on the road.”
“Many of the trees we once had have disappeared. It’s a lost snack. You could get fruit without anyone having a problem.”
The picnic tables were handmade by York craftsman Denis Sturdivant, and inscribed by a commercial sign company. Installed on public grounds at the CCA, the public tables offer a place to sit or share a picnic and a point of view. This piece will serve as a starting point for future collaboration between residents of York and the Fallen Fruit.
Using fruit as a lens the Fallen Fruit investigate urban space, ideas of neighborhood and new forms of located citizenship and community. The collective aims to reconfigure the relation between those who have resources and those who do not, to examine the nature of and in the city, and to investigate new, shared forms of land use and property. For more information visit www.fallenfruit.org.
This program is made possible by funding from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Good Works Foundation, the Alabama State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Daniel Foundation of Alabama and the many contributions of our individual supporters. For more information please contact the Coleman Center for the Arts at 205-392-2005 or email colemancenter@gmail.com.