LAist Interview: Austin Young of The Fallen Fruit Project

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Austin Young is our final respondent from the Fallen Fruit Project, which, incidentally, is about more than a couple of guys wandering the streets with a fruit picker and paper bags. This group also makes art. Their work is on view at these locations through the end of the month: Civic Matters exhibit at LACE and theLos Angeles Center for Digital Art downtown.

Co-founder Austin Young is a photographer and filmmaker. His work appears in Andy Warhol's Interview Magazine, Surface, Flaunt, Vogue, Spin, Rolling Stone, Q, and many others. His portraits include photos of Leigh Bowery, Lypsinka, Siouxsie Sioux, Nina Hagen, Debbie Harry, Margaret Cho, Sandra Bernhard, Ziyi Zhang, Skinny Puppy, Mark Almond, Ann Magnuson, and Amy Poehler. Taschen Books included Austin's website, austinyoung.com, in its latest book, TASCHEN's 1000 Favorite Websites. He's currently working on a feature length documentary, "Queen of The Boogie," about torch singer Hadda Brooks. Austin's solo show is on view until April 7th at The Advocate and Gochis Galleries, at The Village on 1125 McCadden in Hollywood. He is also co-curating the upcoming Open Architecture exhibit, held March 24 through the 31st in conjunction with the Silver Lake Film Festival. When does this guy sleep?

Age and Occupation:
36, photographer (www.austinyoung.com), film maker.

How long have you lived in Los Angeles, and which neighborhood do you live in?
I've lived in Silver Lake for 6 years now.

Why do you live in Los Angeles?
I love it here! I rarely leave Silver Lake. It's so beautiful, green, peaceful.

What inspired you to create the Fallen Fruit project?
The simple ideals of sharing and walking around the neighborhood eating delicious fruit!

What surprised you about Angelenos when you got into this project?
I've met incredible people doing great projects -- like the Bicycle Kitchen, JP's Craftnight at Akbar, The Journal of Aesthetics and Protest, LACE, etc, etc.

How do neighbors react when you start picking fruit from common areas in the neighborhoods that you map?
People have so much fruit, and they are proud of their delicious apples, or kumquats... they have more then they can eat and are happy to share.

Is Los Angeles a good place to be an urban forager?
Fresh fruit all year round!

What skills do you need to be a successful urban forager?
Friendliness, a sense of adventure, and a love of fruit. You must tackle the fear of getting out of your car... this is a big one for Angelenos. And no hoarding.

What do you want participants in the Fallen Fruit project to get out of the experience?
We enjoy this. We are all friends. We also have expanded our sense of community in LA & our relationship to the city. For the Grand Intervention, the renovation of the park on Grand between City Hall and the Music Center, we proposed what we call Endless Orchard: a 10x10 grid of fruit trees surrounded by mirrors and it references the agricultural history of this area and Hollywood's current role in creating visual illusions. It made the first cut and was mentioned in the LA Times. See http://www.learcenter.org/html/projects/?cm=grand/gallery

What is your role in the Civic Matters exhibit at LACE?
We did a downtown shopping cart tour of LA. We gathered found materials and then made gods-eyes with them. We also did a fruit tour with Bicycle Kitchen ending with JP's Craftnight at Akbar.

What do you hope to show your visitors from Scandinavia about Los Angeles?
We showed them that LA artists can be fun loving, sincere, and whacky.

What's the largest yield of fruit that you've managed to obtain from a single tree?
No hoarding! Take a couple pieces of fruit and enjoy. Take only fruit that is clearly not on someone's property, but hangs over the sidewalk or on public space.

What do you think of the Not a Cornfield project? Do you think it complements your project or speaks to your mission statement?
Love it.

What fruit is ready to be harvested now?
Avocados, grapefruit, lemons, oranges, loquats are almost ripe.

Please share a recipe that you use for one of your fruit hauls.
We made fruit salad for Civic Matters. The secret is fresh ground pepper, Meyer lemons, and cayenne pepper. I also love baked figs with sugar, Meyer lemon, fresh squeezed orange, and butter. Serve with crème fraiche.

What's your preferred mode of transportation?
It's LA... driving. I recently got a bike from the Bicycle Kitchen... so I'm going to start riding in my neighborhood.

What's your favorite movie(s) or TV show(s) that are based in LA?
LA Stories, Ruthless People, Mullholand Drive, Valley of the Dolls and Blade Runner.

Best LA-themed book(s)?
Hollywood Babylon

Share your best celebrity sighting experience.
I recently stood next to Diana Ross at La Conversation on Doheny.

In your opinion, what's the best alternate route to the 405?
Stay in Silver Lake?

What's the best place to walk in LA?
Griffith Park.

It's 9:30 pm on Thursday. Where are you coming from and where are you going?
I'm sitting at my computer, making art. I'll run off to Malo soon for tacos.

If you could live in LA during any era, when would it be?
The 1920's.

What's your beach of choice?
Venice Beach. Classic LA.

What is the "center" of LA to you?
Elixir and The Bodhi Tree on Melrose.

If you were forced to live in a neighboring county, which would you choose? Ventura County is a wussy answer.
San Bernadino County: Big Bear or 29 Palms.

If you could live in any neighborhood or specific house in LA, where/which would you choose?
Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House at Barnsdall.

Los Angeles is often stereotyped as a hard place to find personal connections and make friends. Do you agree with that assessment? Do find it challenging to make new friends here?
That's what Fallen Fruit is about. Let's get out of our cars and experience our neighborhoods.

What is the city's greatest secret?
It's abundance of fruit.

Drinking, driving. They mix poorly, and yet they're inexorably linked. How do you handle this conflict?
I live in a bar.

Describe your best LA dining experience.
Mexican food, Korean food, Japanese Food, etc. etc. I love the Mexican food stands in my neighborhood.

What do you have to say to East Coast supremacists?
See the world with new eyes.

Do you find the threat of earthquakes preferable to the threat of hurricanes and long winters?
um.... there's lot's of fruit here.

Where do you want to be when the Big One hits?
With my boyfriend and friends, on vacation.