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***Project Update***

Due to the high cost of fabrication, the solar-powered tree will not be made for the HUB.

***Now Installed at the HUB***

Free Oranges by Garrett Strobel

With the sky rocketing of global populations, we are witnessing dawning world-wide recognition of our linked future.  As space becomes a premium people across disciplines, fields, and areas of expertise are taking notice.  As an artist I am acutely aware of the growing concerns, specifically the issue of balancing space for food production with space for living. 

The artistic practice in this post-modern era has allowed art to become all things.  As technology, society, and information all converge art is swept up in this tide of change, expanding its own definitions and broadening its lens of cultural investigation. 

For this public art project I propose to plant several orange trees in the front lawn of the HUB.  It is easy to create a piece like the solar-powered tree that speaks to the values of sustainability, that will sit in the lawn for one year, and then be passed on or discarded further adding to the insurmountable mountains of refuse.   But to make an artwork that commits to these ideals in every aspect of its being elevates the work to previously unachievable levels of meaning and importance to the public. 

As I walk by the lawn contemplating what needs to be there, it occurs to me over and over again how much water is dumped onto this non-native species of grass, how many man hours and gallons of petroleum are spent to keep it trimmed and hedged to our liking, and how much fertilizer runs off into Lake Alice to keep the lawn nice and green.  To populate the lawn with a small grove of orange trees makes sense on many levels.  At first one may question the validity of such an action as an artwork but there have been many seminal works from the post-modern era that set valuable precedence for this type of work such as Mel Chins “Revival Field” 1990-present; In which the artist planted cleansing flora over a field once used as a dump laden with heavy metals, the plants over time will return the land to a habitable state.  In addition there is Rirkrit Tiravanija’s “Dinner Party”, in which the artist cooked meals in a gallery and fed the museum visitors as his artwork, as well as many other artists experimenting in this new zone of cultural expression.       

  
To plant an orange grove here in the HUB lawn would transform the space from a liminal zone into a cornucopia of delicious oranges within the reach of any student.  The space would transform from being inactive and useless to a place of joy creating lasting memories in the student body and faculty alike, as well as providing sustenance.  In addition this artwork would have a historical context in a few regards, upon further research it has been discovered that the area that is now the HUB was once an orange grove itself!  In addition the orange is critical to the Florida economy, not only is it the state fruit but the orange blossom is the state flower.  This being the University of Florida it only makes sense to have a central area like the HUB contain some reference to these critical, nourishing, and historical fruits.  Imagine laying in the HUB grove with ripe a ORANGE in your hand and a BLUE sky above.