Bad fruit...

Massive mouldy fruit.

Now that is not exactly a lovely image to conjure up.

Except that it is really rather lovely in the hands of New York based artist Kathleen Ryan

Kathleen comments on the culture of excess with her series of ‘rotten’ over-sized fruit sculptures. using polystyrene foam bases and countless beads carved from precious and semi-precious stones. Turning the idea of rotting fruit into beautifully intricate artwork.

To make the fruit, she begins with a large polystyrene base measuring up to 28 inches in width. from this starting point, the artist then paints on the patterns of colors that indicate which part of the lemon or peach will be rotten. the foam is then pierced with steel pins that hold the array of gemstones. from the lighter hues of the freshwater pearl to the deep forest green serpentine, the beads exquisitely convey the decaying flesh of the fruit.

Following an online exhibition last September, she has now installed her ‘Bad Fruit’ at the Karma Gallery in the East Village in New York. From Lemons to pumpkins to giant bad cherries, each sculpture lists all of the stones used to create them. These include freshwater pearls, turquoise, rose quartz, amber, pink opal, and amethyst.

‘the sculptures embody contradictions: the illusory weightlessness of their heavy forms; the insinuations of both kitsch and refinement; the negotiation between allegorical, historical musings and the stoic present.’

Queen Marie

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