Passion Fruit Collective (Bom Bae, Alexi Pedneault, Raphael Sanchez, Tyler J Sloane, Kai Zhou)

Isolation Mountain

Passion Fruit Collective, 2023, mixed media installation, hand-made outfit

Images

• A sky blue arm chair is almost completely covered by a mound of objects, measuring 230 x 130 x 75 cm, which includes clothes, Covid-19 supplies, drug paraphernalia, makeup, alcohol bottles, tissues, and sexually explicit Polaroids. On the edge of the chair, starting in the back left corner, is a sculpture of popper bottles, the right corner has a box of tissues and a brown blanket and pillow. Outside of the chair, against the wall, is a pile of neutral colour laundry with splotches of glitter on underwear and T-shirts screen printed with the phrase “Stay Homo.” Attached to the back of the chair is the blue felt costume from the film behind precariously piled Covid-19 supplies, rapid tests, disposable blue and black masks, tissues and hand sanitizer. Clustered in the lower left corner of the installation is a paint pallet and a pile of cascading puzzle pieces spilling onto the floor. Moving toward our left, the mound transitions into a pile of books, liquor bottles, acrylic nails, make up products, books, candles, over dose prevention supplies, up close Polaroids of asses and pubic mounds covered by jock strops and other kink gear. Glitter is laid out like rows of cocaine, packed into used weed bags, and coating disposable food containers.
• A large wall measuring 3 x 5 meters, of overlapping neon graffiti cardboard cut outs that frames a film projected on the wall. Starting at the top center of the work, the words, “Passion” and “Fruit” are spray painted on yellow brick walls. Moving clockwise around the installation is a yellow bottle with the word, “Rush.” Underneath that, a pink naked body with fat rolls pinches their nipples. On our bottom right hand corner is the word, “Cunt,” overlapping with a Chibi cartoon mushroom, an image repeated multiple times at various spots in the installation. Directly under the film projection, a glittery rainbow juts upwards topped by a red lily with penis shaped stamen, ejaculate erupting from the tips. The lily is framed on either side by silver figures, in the style of Keith Haring, holding neon orange music notes. In our lower left hand corner, is the word “Slut” in bright yellow, next to a portrait of a pink haired, blue bearded person. Above that, is an up close torso with blue chest hair and a figure with gold geometric glasses and purple spikey hair. In our upper left hand corner, a purple passion fruit with large gold seeds drips gold goo onto the film.
• A strapless oversized purple circle gown painted in the style of Holi, with purple, pink, blue, yellow, and green explosions of color. At the neckline is a wide band of purple rhinestones. The pleated fabric of the gown is pleated at the band and flows out creating a voluminous silhouette. Ripples upon ripples of fabric embellished with rhinestones puddles at the floor. The hem of the dress is adorned with purple and white teardrop rhinestones. Two puffy sleeves made out of the same material hang off the mannequin.

Guided Tactile Descriptions

Isolation Mountain

Everything on the Isolation Mountain sculpture can be touched. Things may move when you interact with them, which is fine, so throughout your exploration, use a gentle touch. This description focuses on part of the installation from the perspective of sitting in the chair. Start by turning your body to the left. Feel along the slightly course left arm of the chair till you reach the back corner. Here you’ll find a mound of small popper bottles that have been stacked in a pile. You may find a small Polaroid photo stuck in this pile showing an up close ass with medium skin tone. These Polaroids are scattered throughout the entire installation and all depict various kink and sexual scenes including up close shots of asses, jock straps, and a mouth with a ball gag. Moving off of the couch arm to the pile below, feel for an open cigar box with small stiff plastic bags. These bags are full of chunky green glitter and have names of marijuana strands printed on them. This box also has a cigarette pack and a plastic blunt wrapper tube. Moving to down to our right, there are more objects including a toilet paper roll, alarm clock, tooth brush, part of a fringed costume, and carry out containers. If you stretch your arm out farther and to the right, you may find a plastic dildo that was painted blue by the artist and covered in glitter. Continuing to move to our right while slowly untwisting your body, you’ll find a stand with two large head phones that you can use to listen to the soundtrack and audio description of the film playing in front of you. If you want to touch more, feel outside of the chair on your right. There you’ll find a pile of clothes, underwear, and jock straps with splatters of glitter.

Outfit

A strapless oversized purple gown painted with explosions of a variety of colors hung on a mannequin. Let’s start at the top of the mannequin which is made out of a scratchy synthetic fabric and is not part of the artwork. Move your fingers down till you find a wide band of purple and lavender rhinestones tightly packed on the band, that continues around the entire bodice. Move your fingers to the bottom edge of the band till you find pleated fabric. This is the fabric of the voluminous dress. Begin exploring the fullness of the dress with an open palm noticing more rhinestones scattered throughout the dress. Find one of the many areas with a rough stiff texture and rub it between your fingers. This is a result of the dress being splattered with powdery purple, pink, blue, yellow, and green paint. If you reach your hand deeper into the folds, you may find softer lavender fabric where the paint didn’t reach. Feel all the way down the dress to the bottom edge where the fabric spreads out in a wide circle. The hem is made out of a stiff thick band which has been adorned with larger teardrop shaped purple and lavender rhinestones. After you’ve fully explored the body of the dress, go back to where we started at the top of the mannequin, finding the scratchy fabric. Feel outwards towards the shoulder on our right towards the sleeve, both sides are identical. Touching carefully, you’ll find a puffy sleeve of the same material and design as the dress. The sleeve is not attached to the dress and has been tacked onto the mannequin. Feel along the sleeve to the bunched hemline at the elbow where the voluminous fabric is gathered with elastic. The sleeve is also a purple with splotches of pink, blue, yellow, and green.

Club Kid Alley

Passion Fruit Collective, 2022, video

Video

Transcript + -

Installation Details

During mandatory isolation, Passion Fruit Collective longingly dreamt of resuming in-person gatherings. Here, their installation illustrates the sustaining and revolutionary energy of reverie in contrast to a simulated living room frozen in pandemic time. Through graffiti, drag, and music, Club Kid Alley follows drag performers at Club Kid Manor while Isolation Mountain reflects on the physical experience of isolation. Queer fluidity flows through both freedom and constraint like water.

Established in 2019 and led by Alexi Pedneault and Tyler J Sloane, Passion Fruit Collective provides an intersectional queer, sex-positive, and artistic space for Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour in Toronto.

Content Warning:

Content and strong language warning: We honour the language reclamation undertaken by artists of this exhibition. By taking back control of explicit language originally meant to harm and oppress, this repurposed language is transformed into empowering tools of resistance.

About the Artist