Incorporated Fruit

Incorporated Fruit is a comic illustration depicting 21st working life - exploring themes of capitalism and globalization. I started the drawing in July 2019, and completing the piece 10 months later in May 2020. A significant portion of the work was drawn during the early months of the COVID-19 quarantine, and as a result, many details of the work incorporate symbols relating to the pandemic. While my art is rarely inspired by contemporary events, as the original scope of the work addressed the economic relationship between China and the United States and their bi-directional creator-consumer relationship, I felt that incorporating references to the pandemic and interconnectedness of the two nations supported and strengthened my original concept.

Incorporated Fruit 2020
Digital Drawing
18” x 24” (single panel print)

Drawn on a 6000 pixel x 8000 pixel digital canvas (at 300 dpi) Incorporated Fruit positions the viewer in an elevated perspective, overseeing a full page comic tableau. This voyeuristic position can be interpreted alternatively as the view from a corner-office or security camera, or merely the perspective of a fly on the wall. The faded CMYK half-tone color-scheme and character references are inspired by 20th century American comic series including Pep Comic’s Archie, Frank King’s Gasoline Alley, and various works from Will Elder’s early Mad Comics.

This nostalgic style is an homage to America’s post-war golden age and the sense of manifest destiny and cultural exceptionalism that helped define the period. Of particular significance, are the numerous references to Archie characters in the work. Styled from the "Mirth of a Nation” period of the series (1942-1956) these figures are meant to draw attention to the idealized interpretation of the US experience, and the deep disconnect between this fantasy, and the lived reality of America “coming of age” in the second half of the 20th century.

The title of the drawing “Incorporated Fruit” is both a reference to the imagined company depicted in the scene (with the the circular lemon slice serving as a corporate logo), as well as a more symbolic reference to religious parables around original sin and forbidden fruit. There are dozens of fruit and vegetable references in the drawing; ranging from the stage-by-stage production of lemonade (representing American entrepreneurialism and optimism); to Chinese labels for symbolic produce like pears and cabbage which, due to identical pronunciation, are associated with ideas like separation and wealth.

Rather than simplify capitalism as a process of exploitation, this drawing tries to depict the ways in which the marketplace facilitates self-indulgence and pleasure seeking. While system may be deceptive, hierarchical and cruel, laborers are also consumers - and basic their motivations for their participation are universally shared. In this sense, while the modern shopper may be commonly characterized as a seeker of cheap thrills and meaningless stimulation, they can also be celebrated as a participant in unifying shared experience of exchange are the heart of human civilization.