Fallen Fruit were one of the first visiting artists to the Social Practice seminar run by Ted at CCA; over the years their overlapping interest in food, generosity, forms of community, among other things, brought them together often in the same exhibitions and projects, and in their own conversations (especially with Fieldfaring, the partnership between Ted and Susanne Cockrell). Fallen Fruit began by mapping fruit trees growing on or over public property in Los Angeles. The collaboration has expanded to include serialized public projects, site-specific art installations and happenings in various cities around the world. By always working with fruit as a material or media, the catalogue of projects and works reimagines public interactions with the margins of urban space, systems of community and narrative real-time experience. They see fruit as a universal gift to humanity, and inherently political, a lens through which to explore many different ideas and forms of practice.

 

The phrase "I AM POWERFUL" comes from their ongoing series "DECLARATIONS FROM THE PUBLIC REALM" (2015–).In their movement through cities around the world, they cull found language from sidewalks, alleys, restrooms, and other public spaces. Recent additions to the archive of declarations include personal quotes from the artists’ families and new collaborations with pop culture icons. From their origin in notational and photographic documentation, these source texts are transformed into slogans applied onto everyday objects—commemorative plates, t-shirts, cocktail glasses, and more. Favoring re-use and small-scale production, the materials for the final objects are sourced locally and handmade by the artists whenever possible. With special affection for Ted, they chose this phrase and made an exception for the shirts to be direct to fabric printed for this project.

 

Fallen Fruit is an art collaboration originally conceived in 2004 by David Burns, Matias Viegener and Austin Young. Since 2013, David Burns and Austin Young have continued the collaborative work. They believe everyone is a collaborator in making something special—even the stranger or passerby. They believe an “artwork” has a “resonant effect.”Their projects have been realized all over the world, inside and with major arts institutions, as well as the extensive community and civic networks integral to the interconnectedness of their practice.

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http://fallenfruit.org/