The Citrus Saga pt. 1 (stolen fruits are the sweetest) , in collaboration with Oliver Walkhoff, documents the story of a South African-grown orange which was purchased in Europe, slowly making its way back (assisted by us) to the farm where it was cultivated. The exercise of bringing it back “home” is one of fruitless absurdity; ridiculous in that,from an ecological perspective, it is in no way its Natural habitat, and romantically hopeless in that it is a seedless navel orange – a barren clone,returning in almost perfect condition months after the end of the fruitful season.
The epic adventure of this orange, like a cosmonaut returning from orbit in the midst of The Space Race (still adorned in its plastic space suit, attempting to acclimatise ), is a small part and reminder of much larger and far more dramatic narratives; globalisation, ecological sustainability in the face of technological “progress”, the colonial history of South Africa (where oranges played a surprisingly important role), and lingering capitalist neo-colonialism.
The first iteration of research and documentation of the project was shown at Floating Reverie’s Post Digital 2018 Exhibition at Kalashnikov Gallery, Johannesburg. Someone wrote a thing about it.
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