Tomatoes Colonize Traffic Islands
#62. Tomatoes Colonize Traffic Islands
© Fallen Fruit
Love Apples is the experimental settlement of Los Angeles traffic islands by tomato plants. Some of the most visible land in the city, traffic islands are marginal, ignored, and rarely planted. Ten urban archipelagos were planted with young tomatoes in May 2008, and their produce tracked to identify which traffic islands sites best supported agriculture.
Fallen Fruit began as a mapping of public fruit in Los Angeles, and has since produced many projects aimed at activating interest in public space.
Islands of LA work to appropriate the marginal and highly visible spaces of traffic islands. The group was founded in 2007.
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Comments
I like the idea, but it seems like it is more an experiment to determine the effects of vehicular pollution on plants. I wouldn't eat those tomatoes.
it could be that! it could be many things!
i see it as an intervention and statement to promote curiousity in an otherwise predictable space.
@ Anonymous, ....but you'll live in a city? Breathing the city air is like eating the tomato.
It would be interesting to compare the pollution content of the traffic island tomatoes and those from a pesticide sprayed field...I think I'd take the traffic fruit.