April 1991. Bronze, wood. Dimensions: 86 × 13 × 11 in (218 × 33 × 28 cm). Private Collection.
Strange Fruit IX continues the series while eliminating stone entirely. By this point I had cast a number of the vessel/pod forms in bronze and was creating unique but related variations by changing the bronze base block or support to which each was attached. The elongated, opening form suggests a fruit or seed pod—something like a pea pod—while also carrying the organic, bodily and vessel associations that were becoming increasingly important in my work. In my later writing I described Strange Fruit III and VI as suggesting “fruits of labor” from the studio, with forms carrying simultaneous male and female associations connected to ripeness, production, and reproduction.
The title adds a darker, oblique reference to Billie Holiday’s haunting “Strange Fruit,” confronting the lynching of African Americans in the American South.
April 1991. Bronze, wood. Dimensions: 86 × 13 × 11 in (218 × 33 × 28 cm). Private Collection.
Strange Fruit IX continues the series while eliminating stone entirely. By this point I had cast a number of the vessel/pod forms in bronze and was creating unique but related variations by changing the bronze base block or support to which each was attached. The elongated, opening form suggests a fruit or seed pod—something like a pea pod—while also carrying the organic, bodily and vessel associations that were becoming increasingly important in my work. In my later writing I described Strange Fruit III and VI as suggesting “fruits of labor” from the studio, with forms carrying simultaneous male and female associations connected to ripeness, production, and reproduction.
The title adds a darker, oblique reference to Billie Holiday’s haunting “Strange Fruit,” confronting the lynching of African Americans in the American South.
