Strange Fruit

Strange Fruit installed on Finlandiatalo, Helsinki, as part of the Sculpture Expanded project. June 2019. Photo: Jussi Tiainen

Strange Fruit consists of three independent inflatable sculptures designed for installation on buildings and other structures within the city landscape. The forms of the sculptures draw inspiration from plants exposed to high levels of radiation after the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear disasters, as well as other genetic mutations. The sculptures draw attention to the changes caused to the natural environmental by anthropocentric activities such as mining, deforestation, pollution, and human population growth. The name Strange Fruit references the song sung by Billy Holiday with the lyrics “Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees”, telling of black men lynched in the Deep South of the USA. The radical social and political changes currently occurring in our own societies are a symptom of a similar fragmented cultural landscape. The Strange Fruit sculptures are beautiful yet ominous heralds of a possible future.

Strange Fruit at Vuotalo, East Helsinki, August 2019
Strange Fruit installed on the public library, Malminkartano, Helsinki. July 2019