An Apple A Day

Jorgensen explores themes and imagery of the apple as a loaded and sometimes contradictory cultural symbol. Her performative acts of eating, destroying, and documenting the common fruit speaks to the ways in which the apple embodies notions of sensuality, and by extension the female body, while simultaneously hinting to the negative connotations of a tainted fruit… Jorgensen references the popular saying by partially eating and then destroying the remains of an apple using the brute force of a sledgehammer, once a day for 30 days. The images are shot in such a way to suggest decay, repulsion, and unsanitary conditions. Through her exploration of this quintessential American symbol, Jorgensen rejects the traditional construct of the apple as a signifier of femininity and female transgression. Rather, she addresses themes of brutality embedded in the apple as a target of aggression. --Rebecca Maksym, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, curator