Survival Piece #5: Portable Orchard marks the first standalone museum presentation of the fully realized indoor citrus grove conceived and designed in 1972 by artists Helen Mayer Harrison (1927-2018) and Newton Harrison (1932-2022). This project explores the need for a productive and sustainable food system in an imagined future where natural farming practices are obsolete and cannot be taken for granted. Stretching across the Museum’s eighth-floor gallery, this installation of eighteen live citrus trees rooted in self-contained planters with individual lighting systems reflects a survivalist alternative in the face of environmental decline.
Survival Piece #5: Portable Orchard is on view on the 8th floor at the Whitney Museum of American Art, from June 29, 2024-January 5, 2025. Find out more about the exhibition here: whitney.org/exhibitions/porta...
Survival Piece #5: Portable Orchard is organized by Kim Conaty, Nancy and Steve Crown Family Chief Curator, with Roxanne Smith, Senior Curatorial Assistant. Generous support for Survival Piece #5: Portable Orchard is provided by Judy Hart Angelo and The Brown Foundation, Inc., of Houston. Major support is provided by the Achilles Memorial Fund and the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation.
#portableorchard #whitneymuseum #sustainability #1970s #theharrisons #helenmayerharrison #newtonharrison #environmentalism #exhibition #artinstallation #installationart