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Two Oranges

Zoe Leonard American
1992
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
At once poignant and incisive, Two Oranges consists of the skins of two pieces of fruit that Leonard "repaired" with thread. The artist made no effort to arrest the decay of the fruit—it is and always will be frail, scarred, and perishable. Its "very essence," Leonard once said of a related work, "is to decompose." Created at the height of the AIDS crisis, Two Oranges was intended as a critique of prejudice and indifference, as was a related work, Strange Fruit (for David ) (1992–97; Philadelphia Museum of Art). It also serves as an unconventional memorial to Leonard’s friend, the artist and AIDS activist David Wojnarowicz, who died of an AIDS-related illness in 1992.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Two Oranges
  • Artist: Zoe Leonard (American, born New York, 1961)
  • Date: 1992
  • Medium: Fruit, thread, buttons, zippers, needles, wax, sinew, string, wax
  • Dimensions: 2 × 8 × 2 in. (5.1 × 20.3 × 5.1 cm) approx.
  • Classification: Installations
  • Credit Line: Courtesy the Artist and Hauser & Wirth, NY, and Galerie Capitain, Cologne
  • Rights and Reproduction: © Zoe Leonard. Photo courtesy the Artist and Hauser & Wirth, NY, and Galerie Capitain, Cologne
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art