whitneymuseum:Over five years, Zoe Leonard sewed together skins of fruit. The artist chose not to pr
whitneymuseum:Over five years, Zoe Leonard sewed together skins of fruit. The artist chose not to preserve the resulting work, Strange Fruit (1992–97), intending for its decay to be on view. Currently on display in Zoe Leonard: Survey, the work hasn’t been seen publicly since 2001. Strange Fruit was made in the mid-1990s, during the AIDS crisis, before any effective treatments for HIV had been developed. Disproportionately affecting the gay community, the disease was heavily stigmatized. It was years into the epidemic before the U.S. government began to support research, treatment, and education about transmission. By 1997, more than sixty thousand New Yorkers had died of HIV/AIDS. The work’s title is taken from the song “Strange Fruit,” first recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939, whose lyrics describe the lynching of African Americans. Using imagery often associated with the tradition of vanitas painting, and foregrounding the changing state of the work over time, Strange Fruit offers us a contemporary variant on the still life.On the occasion of the work’s display at the Whitney, on Saturday, March 24, Gregg Bordowitz, Jonah Groeneboer, Katherine Hubbard, Fred Moten, Cameron Rowland, and Christian Scheidemann will reflect on its historical inflections, its relevance and resonance today, and its very specific material existence. We will also livestream the program on Youtube.[Installation view of Zoe Leonard (b. 1961), Strange Fruit, 1992-97. Orange, banana, grapefruit, lemon, and avocado peels with thread, zippers, buttons, sinew, needles, plastic, wire, stickers, fabric, and trim wax, dimensions variable. Collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art; purchased with funds contributed by the Dietrich Foundation and with the partial gift of the artist and the Paula Cooper Gallery, 1998. Image courtesy the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Photograph by Graydon Wood] -- source link
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