We’ve all come across a funny or odd looking piece of fruit at some point in our lives. The last time I came across one was not too long ago when I dumped a plastic container of strawberries into a colander for rinsing. I noticed one had several folds in a single berry. Not as many like the one pictured to the right, but something like that. I’ve always thought it was neat to see mutated fruits and vegetables, but my curiosity never went further than pure observation.
However, a German artist named Uli Westphal, has been working on a project called Mutato, which is
[quote] a collection of non-standard fruits, roots and vegetables, displaying a dazzling variety of forms, colours and textures, that only reveal themselves when commercial standards cease to exist. [/quote]
Westphal continues to explain that
[quote] The complete absence of botanical anomalies in our supermarkets has caused us to regard the consistency of produce presented there as natural. Produce has become a highly designed, monotonous product. We have forgotten, and in many cases never experienced, the way fruits, roots, and vegetables can actually look (and taste). The Mutato-Project serves to document, preserve and promote these last remainders of agricultural plasticity. [/quote]
Visit his website for a close-up of his vibrant mutatoes.
