“Strange Fruit (for David)” by Zoe Leonard Breathes New Life Into Death

Zoe Leonard, Strange Fruit (for David) (detail), 1992-97
(Credit: hauserwirth.com)

“Strange Fruit (for David)” by artist Zoe Leonard is as tender and fragile as it is innovative and…sometimes smelly. This installation comprises “Orange, banana, grapefruit, lemon, and avocado peels with thread, zippers, buttons, sinew, needles, plastic, wire, stickers, fabric, and trim wax” according to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The fruit has been hollowed out, its peels stitched together and decorated with great care. Over time the peels rot and shrivel, encouraging viewers to question the importance of permanence and place value on the impermanent. Begun as a form of consolation after the death of the artist’s friend, “Strange Fruit (for David)” finds an expanded scope in how it asks us to witness decay: with patience and careful, close attention.

Strange Fruit (for David) (installation view, 1998)
(Credit: imageobjecttext.com)

“Strange Fruit” recalls the still life tradition in European painting, spanning several centuries. These paintings often depict symbolic objects such as food and flowers in varying states of ripeness and decay, accompanied by objects such as timepieces, skulls, and mirrors, which recall the temporal nature of the material world. Here, Leonard brings the still life to life, so to speak. Over the span of each installation, the peels, which have been gutted and stitched together or otherwise sweetly adorned, require us to consider art — and life — in a new light. Is it the permanence of the thing or the duration that carries value? Or is something valuable because of our relationship to it? Is that relationship any less meaningful because the object of our consideration changes over time?

Zoe Leonard, Strange Fruit (for David) (detail), 1992-97
(Credit: imageobjecttext.com)

Leonard’s friend David Wojnarowicz, to whom “Strange Fruit” is dedicated, was himself an artist whose work highlighted issues around systemic oppression and discrimination, particularly with respect to the AIDS crisis. “Strange Fruit” is also the title of Billie Holiday’s famous song which reflects the widespread nature of deep pain caused by concepts of difference. A thread can be followed from here to a consideration of how people who are dying continue to be ostracized in North American culture. Leonard’s work calls us to revisit the hollowed-out, the withered, and the changeable aspects of life with appreciation and empathic understanding.