A collaboration between Allison Kudla and Nat Evans for Art Hack Day: Erasure. This event took place in Seattle, WA at V2 from September 15-17, 2016.
Installation view of the final tableau. Shown here: semi-transparent apples next to a mound of sugar, soil, wild-type crab apples, candles and other elements.
Modern supermarket varieties of apples have been cultivated and cloned primarily for appearance and taste I.E.: sugary, juicy, shiny, easy to ship, and consistent in shape and size — all characteristics of short term pleasure. Longer term benefits like nutrient density and diversity, presence of antioxidants and other phytonutrients, etc., were not known are even able to be measured at the time these apples were being domesticated. The lore of the apple being a symbol of health is no longer true! Its phytonutrients have become degraded and erased*. Calling on the history of “Vanitas” style paintings, the artists have collected and created a tableau of items to provoke this emptiness, including: mass-produced varieties of apples typically found in supermarkets that have been chemically treated to appear empty and semi-transparent, the forgotten and fallen apples of wild-type ancestors, and various other elements to accentuate a deconstruction of the apple. A field recording taken in a historic apple orchard in Seattle, punctuated by gentle tones, completes the immersive experience of the piece.