“Beyond Green – Toward a Sustainable Art”
F.R.U.I.T by Free Soil
Natalie Schuler
IFS 3129
Sunny Spillane
October 23, 2017
Free Soil is a group of artists who collaborated to create projects that highlight their interests and relay valuable messages to their audiences. Amy Franceschini, co-founder of this collective, Myriel Milicevic, and Nis Rømer collaborated their shared interest of bringing social, political, cultural, and environmental relationships to the forefront in order to work with the Beyond Green project. With their common interests they created the F.R.U.IT (Fruit Route User InTerface) project 2004 in Lofoten, Norway which brings to light an urban cities effect on the environment as well as a notion as to how the fruit one consumes comes to arrive in an urban development.
Is that a real fruit stand?
Like many eco projects, F.R.U.I.T develops a message in a unique way by displaying a tangible project in which an individual can interact and furthermore grasp the true concept of the project. The project uses oranges as their fruit of display when recreating a fruit stand that displays artificial ones with a special wrapping paper including facts about the production and process of that specific orange reaching the fruit stand. The wrapping around each fruit contains information on the artists’ “The Right to Know!” campaign which advocates for the idea that urban dwellers should be aware of where the fruits they are consuming derive from and not simply focusing on the product they find in the grocery store.1 In addition to providing vital information with the wrapping of the artificial orange, this paper is useful for wrapping a fruit in food markets for one’s self-purchase. While the project includes the recreation of a fruit stand, re-usable fruit wrapping paper, and facts about the production of the fruit, there is also technology involved in the project. At the site of the installation an individual can find an interactive computer station which allows one to visit the F.R.U.I.T website and be provided with more in-depth information. Not only can they read upon the manufacture of the fruit but they can go through a visual simulation that illustrates and takes them through the process of a fruit going from production to urban cities. Wood, silk, paper and the internet bring this recreation of a fruit stand to life making it more realistic for the individual who encounters it. The interactive computer station placed alongside the stand brings attention to the audience by pulling them in for a closer view as to why they are facing a re-created fruit stand in the first place.
A collective movement toward change
Free Soil’s motivation for creating such a project clearly emerged from the artists wanting to bring together readily available resources to allow others to better understand the social aspect of food production and how individuals can bring change to it. Amy Franceschini, Myriel Milicevic, and Nis Rømer are the three artist who came together to create the F.R.U.I.T project in “Beyond Green” regardless of their geographical locations. Each artist was and still is residing in a different country and this was advantageous for their work because their exposure to different cultures and environments is what has made F.R.U.I.T such a grand success. While being able to live in different settings these artists still collectively agreed to create a project that challenges the knowledge of consumers on the life of their produce purchase. The background of each contributor to this project is relevant because it brings together the often overlooked fact that individuals are not aware of where their food comes from and how it is detrimental to the environment. The fact that they have all resided in different locations and still agreed on the one idea of bringing awareness to the food production and its effects on the environment truly highlights the importance in taking action because it is not just a local issue it is a global one. By raising awareness through fruit wrappers and travelling installations that display the process of a fruit from production to utilization, the project highlights the importance of individuals moving toward a more sustainable and environmentally friendly method for food. The input from each artist mutually adds to the projects message that environmental change is necessary.
The takeaway
The project began as a way to inflict awareness in urban city residents on how the fruit that they purchase goes through a process that is detrimental to the Earth. It is apparent that the artwork uses an orange as its choice of fruit because it is simple, bare, and most importantly efficient in delivering the underlying message of sustainability in the environment. The selection of this fruit allows individuals to better connect with the message because if the production of a fruit as unadorned as an orange is detrimental then it brings these individuals to question, “how harmful is the production of other produce to the environment?” By questioning a simple fruit, society can gain curiosity and be more interested in wanting to understand the production of the produce they always see on market shelves. This allows them to understand the complex relationship of food systems through an un-complicated example of a fruit. The interpretation of the project is that of which society must unitedly act on environmental issues in order to make a change. By using fruits, specifically oranges, Free Soil creates a common ground for individuals in a community because it is a fruit that many can interact with daily whether it is a side for their breakfast or a snack on-the-go. This emphasizes that an unfamiliarity with produce production is very common since many individuals would not question how a crate of oranges or any other fruit got to the stand of ones produce section in the grocery store which is even more of a reason to initiate the change of food systems.
In conclusion, the Free Soil collective displayed an important message with their project by creating many resources to bring awareness to individuals on how the cost and production of fruits to urban cities must be changed. The project contributes a meaningful message to the world by emphasizing the importance of cutting costs and moving toward an alternative food system that is more beneficial to the Earth. In order for the environment to get better and remain that way, individuals in a society must make changes in their daily lives, starting with their produce.
Works Cited
“F.R.U.I.T. Exploring your city and its connection to the world via fruit,” Neighbourhood
Satellites, 2007-2008. http://neighbourhoodsatellites.com/project/f-r-u-i-t/
“Future Farmers Project Site,” Future Farmers, 2005.
http://www.futurefarmers.com/survey/fruit.php
Smith, Stephanie, “Beyond Green toward a sustainable art,” Smart museum of art University of
Chicago, 2007: 42-51. PDF e-book.