A fruit skin in Zoe Leonard's "Untitled" piece at the Baltimore Museum of Art
When Kenny and I go to museums and galleries, I get excited if artists use food as one or more of their materials (Kenny is an artist too; visit his website to view his beautiful work). I love the idea of using food in visual art.
Kenny often pours coffee over new canvases because he says he can’t start painting if the background is white, and I know someone who painted a large canvas using only food products (I can only remember one food used: egg shells).
So when I visited the Baltimore Museum of Art a couple of weeks ago, I was drawn to Zoe Leonard’s Untitled piece in the Contemporary Art section: several fruit skins – three bananas, three oranges, and one grapefruit – sitting on a shelf, sewn together with thread like the pattern on a baseball.
Leonard ate the fruit, then let the skins dry on the windowsill, turning them into a piece of art that will change over time and eventually decay completely – the Museum cannot make any effort to preserve them.
These banana and orange skins will decay over time.
“I was tired of wasting things, throwing things out all the time,” she says, as quoted in the sign listed next to her piece.
This got me wondering: how long does it take for fruit skins to decay?
I wasn’t able to find the answer, but the fruit skins used in Untitled, created between 1999 and 2000, are shriveled with brown spots, yet a few of the oranges still have some of their original color. They might be around for a while.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, located at 10 Art Museum Drive at North Charles and 31st Streets, is open Wednesday through Friday from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The best part is admission is free!
