Fallen Fruit

It all began with the mapping of fruit trees. Specifically, the fruit trees growing on or over public property in Los Angeles. Fallen Fruit, is an art collaboration that uses fruit as a lens to investigate urban space, and explore the meaning of community through creating and sharing new and abundant resources — fruit trees!

“The Endless Orchard” is a collaborative movement of citizens transforming their own neighborhoods through “Urban Fruit Trails” – fruit trees planted, tended, and harvested by the public, for the public. It’s essentially a massive, sustainable, living public artwork that allows anyone, anywhere to plant, map, and share fruit. The goal? To create the largest and most generous public artwork in the world. Placed along sidewalks and interstitial urban spaces, Public Fruit Trees form a series of walking trails that connect neighborhoods and become an invitation for the public to explore and enjoy cities in a new way. To date, trees have been planted in Omaha, Portland, New York City, The Bronx, and Los Angeles, and there will be 200 trees planted in February in LA. There is a mobile app in development that will help users navigate the existing trails, and help with planting, mapping, sharing, and growing this sustainable, interactive public art.

The team will use our AWB grant to create durable tree tags that will help brand the project, identify public fruit trees, and call attention to fruit as a transcultural symbol of sharing. The tags will identify the fruit trees as part of the Urban Fruit Trail, as well as guide people to the Endless Orchard website where they can map, plant, and share fruit. The tags will also state the type of fruit and the season of ripeness.

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. You MUST check out this deliciously fruitful project. Follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Go!