NGV Triennial 2020: Cut, paste, compose

Fallen Fruit is a collaborative art project that began in Los Angeles in 2004 by mapping fruit trees growing on or over public property. Today Fallen Fruit artists – David Burns and Austin Young – make art installations, public art projects and plant fruit trees in public spaces for everyone to share. Using fruit as a symbol of the abundance of nature, they highlight the stories around fruit – where and how it grows, how it comes to us, how we enjoy it, what it represents and how it is depicted in art and design.

‘Fruit is a universal gift to humanity and fruit is always political.’ David Burns and Austin Young

For NGV Triennial, Fallen Fruit created a wallpaper called Natural History, 2020. It is displayed as a backdrop to artworks from the NGV Collection which represent the natural world, colonialism, spirituality, religions and ancient mythologies. The wallpaper incorporates images of birds, insects, plants, fruits and flowers which the artists sourced from the NGV Collection and photographs taken around Melbourne including in Cranbourne Gardens, The Collingwood Children’s Farm and the Royal Botanic Gardens. Natural History, 2020 is a colourful and abundant portrait of history, science, culture, politics and personal connections.

• a computer with the software GIMP installed.
• a camera or smartphone to take pictures with
• a source photograph to work with.

To download the free image editing software GIMP

1. Go to https://www.gimp.org/
2. Click the red button with the text “download version 2.10.22”
3. Select the relevant installation package for your operating system (Linux, Mac OSX, Microsoft Windows)
4. Open the package and follow the prompts to complete the installation.

The activity can also be completed with alternative image editing software such as Photoshop.