You think you know bananas, but you have no idea.
Sure, we all know bananas are tasty, they're cheap, sometimes they're green, and obviously they're the punchline of jokes (see: Orange you glad I didn't say banana?).
But, what do we really know about the banana's history, politics and origins? Two new exhibits in Los Angeles are out to answer that question.
According to its website, Fallen Fruit examines social relationships, the environment, urban space and transnational capitalism.
"Our goal is, and has always been, to change the way you look at fruit as an object," says David Burns, who formed Fallen Fruit in 2004 with Matias Viegener and Austin Young.
"Buying a banana in a grocery store is not an intimate process, but the work that goes into banana harvesting is very personal. It's all done by hand, as opposed to a mechanized assembly line," Burns told the Los Angeles Times.
The first exhibition in the series, United Fruit, runs from June 16 to Sept. 27 at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions.
The second exhibition in the series, Fresh 'n Easy, runs from June 20 to Aug. 3 at Another Year in LA.
The project originated in Silver Lake, the LA Times reported:
In 2004, Burns, Viegener and Young initially set out to produce a working map of all the fruit trees in their Silver Lake neighborhood. Trees bearing avocados, oranges, apples, loquats and many other varieties either grew on public land or had branches that hung over the edges of private grounds, making them technically public property. Fallen Fruit's manifesto called for the planting and cultivation of more public fruit trees and, ultimately, for a higher degree of social responsibility about food consumption at a local level.
The next fruits to be examined are the kiwi and arctic berries, according to artleak.org.
United Fruit
June 16 to Sept. 27
Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions
6522 Hollywood Boulevard
323-957-1777
http://www.artleak.org/
Fresh N Easy
June 20 to Aug. 3
Another Year in LA.
2121 N. San Fernando Road, No. 13
323-223-4000
http://www.anotheryearinla.com/
