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April 1988. Pink granite, painted steel. Dimensions: 86 × 12 × 12 in (218 × 30 × 30 cm).Private collection - Alexandria, VA
Strange Fruit I marks the beginning of a series and a departure from my more familiar combinations of substantial stone and steel. Here stone is reduced to a small base, while painted steel rises in a slender, almost calligraphic gesture. The elongated upper form opens like a fruit or seed pod, introducing the organic and bodily associations becoming increasingly important in my work.
The title adds a darker, deliberately oblique meaning, recalling Billie Holiday’s haunting performance of “Strange Fruit,” a song confronting the lynching of African Americans in the American South. Rather than illustrating the song, the reference gives the organic form a more unsettling dimension, creating a tension between growth and violence, beauty and brutality.
April 1988. Pink granite, painted steel. Dimensions: 86 × 12 × 12 in (218 × 30 × 30 cm).Private collection - Alexandria, VA
Strange Fruit I marks the beginning of a series and a departure from my more familiar combinations of substantial stone and steel. Here stone is reduced to a small base, while painted steel rises in a slender, almost calligraphic gesture. The elongated upper form opens like a fruit or seed pod, introducing the organic and bodily associations becoming increasingly important in my work.
The title adds a darker, deliberately oblique meaning, recalling Billie Holiday’s haunting performance of “Strange Fruit,” a song confronting the lynching of African Americans in the American South. Rather than illustrating the song, the reference gives the organic form a more unsettling dimension, creating a tension between growth and violence, beauty and brutality.
