FRUIT (Fossils of Rural Urban Illusionists Transportation) takes the form of a mock-up of an old-style fruit stand, presented by Amy Franceschini of Free Soil, and addresses citrus production and its rather bizarre, circuitous distribution patterns. A cartoon orange, with wide-spaced eyes, appears vulnerable. Carol Selter presents a colorful, quilt-like collage of photographs of fruits and vegetables printed on ceramic tiles, "Fruition," while Christy Rupp's "New Labels for Genetically Engineered Foods" features an assortment of clear plastic food containers labeled with politically-charged statements. A reproduction of New York artist Alexis Rockman's "The Farm," features grotesque images of farm animals and produce, seemingly genetically engineered for the convenience of the farmer and to maximize profit. Rachel Major's compelling "Raw" uses assorted faux-fur fabrics, stitched and stuffed to replicate assorted cuts of meat - pork loin, turkey leg, etc., emphasizing how distanced we are from the definitely un-fuzzy slaughter and butchering of animals.
at the Sonoma County Museum, Santa Rosa
One of the most poetic images in the show is the work of Marisa Jahn and Steve Shada, "Swan Song," which alludes to a legend of a mute swan which may sing one heartbreakingly beautiful song just before it dies. Here the artists draw attention to the ripening and falling of fruit, with a rainbow-colored sixteen-sided xylophone designed to emit sound when apples fall from the tree planted in a large square planter box installed in the project space.
Patricia Watts, chief curator for the museum as well as this exhibition, presents a statement posted above bales of hay and accompanied by and old-fashioned plow and pitchfork. Watts suggests that "Hybrid Fields" will provide "a mirror for society to reframe motivations and desires and to invent new realities that incorporate aesthetics as a visioning tool." While much of the work on display is clever, and all is thoughtful, less seems to engage us deeply on a sensual level; we may experience much of the work primarily as conceptual, sympathizing as well with its agenda.
Several of the installations are housed outdoors. In "Sweet Survival," Susan Leibovitz Steinman uses a pentagonal frame of recycled doors to house a site-specific installation of five apple tree saplings, planted in metal tubs full of pink quartz. A tasting of local, sustainably grown, apples took place in the fall; seeds were collected and are being propagated over the winter, to be transplanted as a spring '07 crop of "wild apple" saplings. The five oval tubs form a star shape, echoing the design in a cut apple - a neat connection. Wowhaus, a collaboration of Scott Constable and Ena Osteraas-Constable, has created a long communal table of wood recycled from a wind-fallen tree. This piece, "Tree Trust True," speaks to the loss of community and time spent shared eating.
Matthew Moore, a farmer and artist from Arizona, presents a C-print of his home-grown "subdivision," made of sorghum and wheat, mirroring an actual subdivision intruding on the neighboring parcel of land - for which he lost the lease. Adjacent to the museum, a green square concrete block building features Moore's rooftop, hydroponic hops garden, posing the question of where food will be grown in the future. Surreal, zine-like comic imagery, featuring a horned cow and blackbird, whose heads both resemble Alfred Hitchcock, reflects on Sonoma's transition from an area that relied on hops as a cash crop to an area known for wine production - with a nod of course to Bodega Bay, and its cinemagraphic avian overpopulation issues.
Finally, "Free Fruit," a collaborative project of Pam Bolton and Cindy Cleary, provides locally donated fruit as a gift to passers-by on the street, its presence marked by an arrow. Certainly a nice symbolic gesture, this act, like a number of the works in "Hybrid Fields," somehow teeters on the brink of collapsing from the weight of its own good intentions. What keeps us engaged in the show, and in a number of individual installations, is the fecund, tongue-in-cheek spirit frequently springing up through the weighty subject matter. You can, after all, perhaps still catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
"Hybrid Fields" closed in December at Sonoma Museum.
Barbara Morris is a contributing editor to Artweek.
