- Assignment Title: Eat that fruit.
- Assignment Description: Choose a fruit or vegetable that you don't eat often, eat it, and then do/or make something that relates to that fruit/veg or the experience of eating it or finding it
- Created by: Roberta Borroni
- Responded by: Yulin Huang, Roberta Borroni, Alessandro Grossi, Marine One, Natasha Brown
Yulin Huang - There's No Pear Like A Piqa Boo Pear
Natasha Brown - Green/red/yellow/blue/black/orange - gage
Roberta Borroni & Alessandro Grossi - Cherry rap
Marine One - Some kind of potato
YH: I don’t usually eat a lot of fruit so this was a great assignment for me to discover something new. when I explored my local supermarket I saw these fruits that I’ve never seen before labelled ‘PIQA BOO PEARS’… how could I not choose them! they were these curious little apple-like pears, nestled together in a plastic container. their striking red skin and casual whimsy reminded me of those apple-cider-apples that have the sparkles on them from the fantastic mr. fox film. when I bit into my first one it really was this explosion of (the perfect degree of) sweetness. I tend to dislike any fruit that leans sour so this was the perfect flavour profile for me. but I also felt strange because I had a feeling this is one of those genetically modified fruits.. and after perusing their official website I think I am right. I also realised its official name is the Piqa Red pear. that made me wonder why it was labelled as Piqa Boo. do locals know that to be its unofficial name? or was it a fun exercise executed by a supermarket employee? I was very intrigued by the myth around its name. I was also admiring the ridiculously luxurious curation of this pear on its website, from the highly styled photos to the over the top marketing language used all over the site. I was first hooked on 'sweet, juicy, & surprisingly tropical’. what do they mean? what does tropical taste like? why is it a surprise? is that what the Piqa Boo is? for my experiment I used my red spray paint for the first time to emulate the explosive sweetness that did indeed ‘exceed expectations’ and played around with digitally collaging different elements together, including some of the language used in their campaigns. I consumed ‘the pear perfected’ for two weeks straight, with ‘sweetness and light in every joyous bite’… it was indeed ’an unforgettable experience’.
RB & AG: As soon as I saw the assignment I felt like I had to do it with cherries. I have been seeing them at the supermarket all summer, and I have been craving them but never bought them because they are so expensive. The flavour in my memory was better than in real life - I mean, they were really really good, but were they worth the price for such a small amount of food?! I felt like the dream of eating these cherries was bit of a summer nonsense...
Lyrics "Cherry Rap" (ft Alessandro):
Cherries
Oh my, I’ve been dreaming of them for a year
11 euros per kilo – no way!
I keep looking
8 euros per kilo at the local market
I buy them, almost a bargain
I taste one
It is a bit bitter
But I don’t let it get me down
I try another one
It’s sweet
Juicy
I spit out the pit and think – how much did that cost me?
Cherry, symbol of summer!!!
NB: I saw greengages in the supermarket. I always thought "greengage" was a made up flavour like "red burst" or "purple passion" etc. But I realized at that moment it was a real fruit! I bought the greengages and thought more about some other fruits that were named the colour they are (or vice versa), like oranges, blueberries, blackberries. I wanted to highlight a feature of the colour of my greengages and thought - green is used to key things out in video. So I made a greengage-screen of sorts. Now the greengages could pretend to many different fruits.