Erin Johnson
Tomatoes (2020)
03:24 min

In Tomatoes a group people sit closely together in a field, indulging in in the titular red fruit. The video is closely related to another work by Erin Johnson, Solanum plastisexum, about the Australian bush tomato whose sexual expression has eluded scientific classification, challenging even the fluid norms of the plant kingdom. .

The cast of Tomatoes is made up of members of the artist’s community and peers at the Skowhegan summer residency program in Maine in 2019. A panning shot of the group, divided into a triptych, captures them caressing the fruits and each other to the ambient soundtrack of the season: the wind in the grass, tweeting birds and the gentle clink of picnic cutlery. A summer celebration of communion and the fluid nature of desire and self-expression suffuses this moving portrait.  

Erin Johnson (b. 1985) is an American artist, based in New York.

This artwork is part of the online exhibition CADS #3: Queer desires (20 May - 18 June 2021)