IMPOSSIBLE CITRUS
From July 10th-17th, HOLO were artist residents at A.P.E. in Northampton, Massachusetts as part of the galleries summer ARC 2022 projects. All of the following work was created during our residency period.
Impossible Citrus risographs prints can be purchased here.
Passerby reads the collaborative text/fabric piece in the window of A.P.E. Artist Statement:
As we approach year two of the COVID-19 pandemic, artist duo Holo (Kelly Clare and Lorelei d’Andriole) ask: when will we stop being given lemons with which to make lemonade? How fruitful is a positive attitude when one is powerless over their material conditions? Through participatory lemon smashing, citrus instruments, lemon etching, and invisible ink, Impossible Citrus uses humor and vibrancy to push back against the numbed state.
The hand on the screen reaches out to projected digital lemons, but this hand will never be able to grab a fruit and produce juice. In the digital remove, a conditional-tense lemon only goes so far. If life gives you lemons, make lemonade. What if the lemons are invisible, inaccessible, and unreachable?
Impossible musical objects, the juice from the lemons inherently corrode the wires and technology—a bitter and acidic mess. But a lemon, a mistake, can still make sound.
In a post-lemonade world, maybe we should instead look to the lemon tree who, while able to self pollinate, produces better tasting fruit when in a community.
