Uploaded June 2024 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Survival Piece #5: Portable Orchard marks the first standalone museum presentation of the fully realized indoor citrus grove conceived and designed in 1972 by artists Helen Mayer Harrison (1927–2018) and Newton Harrison (1932–2022). This project explores the need for a productive and sustainable food system in an imagined future where natural farming practices are obsolete and cannot be taken for granted. Stretching across the Museum’s eighth-floor gallery, this installation of eighteen live citrus trees rooted in self-contained planters with individual lighting systems reflects a survivalist alternative in the face of environmental decline.
Survival Piece #5: Portable Orchard is on view on the 8th floor at the Whitney Museum of American Art, from June 29, 2024–January 5, 2025. Find out more about the exhibition here: whitney.org/exhibitions/portable-orchard
Survival Piece #5: Portable Orchard is organized by Kim Conaty, Nancy and Steve Crown Family Chief Curator, with Roxanne Smith, Senior Curatorial Assistant. Generous support for Survival Piece #5: Portable Orchard is provided by Judy Hart Angelo and The Brown Foundation, Inc., of Houston. Major support is provided by the Achilles Memorial Fund and the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation.
#portableorchard #whitneymuseum #sustainability #1970s #theharrisons #helenmayerharrison #newtonharrison #environmentalism #exhibition #artinstallation #installationart
Survival Piece #5: Portable Orchard marks the first standalone museum presentation of the fully realized indoor citrus grove conceived and designed in 1972 by artists Helen Mayer Harrison (1927–2018) and Newton Harrison (1932–2022). This project explores the need for a productive and sustainable food system in an imagined future where natural farming practices are obsolete and cannot be taken for granted. Stretching across the Museum’s eighth-floor gallery, this installation of eighteen live citrus trees rooted in self-contained planters with individual lighting systems reflects a survivalist alternative in the face of environmental decline.
Survival Piece #5: Portable Orchard is on view on the 8th floor at the Whitney Museum of American Art, from June 29, 2024–January 5, 2025. Find out more about the exhibition here: whitney.org/exhibitions/portable-orchard
Survival Piece #5: Portable Orchard is organized by Kim Conaty, Nancy and Steve Crown Family Chief Curator, with Roxanne Smith, Senior Curatorial Assistant. Generous support for Survival Piece #5: Portable Orchard is provided by Judy Hart Angelo and The Brown Foundation, Inc., of Houston. Major support is provided by the Achilles Memorial Fund and the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation.
#portableorchard #whitneymuseum #sustainability #1970s #theharrisons #helenmayerharrison #newtonharrison #environmentalism #exhibition #artinstallation #installationart
