Making Citrus
from Plant South Salesroom
2024.6
Extracted illustrations on how to distinguish a perfect orange fruit from a 1978 local archive in Taizhou, Zhejiang, China.
Making Citrus seeks to investigate the question, “Why have citrus fruits become increasingly sweet and juicy?” Rather than a direct answer, this issue initiates a discussion on how citrus fruits are cultivated- or more specifically, how they are “produced” as commodities- hoping to provide an alternative perspective, “Behind the sweetness may be a long-term production process.”
Due to the complex and ancient history of citrus fruits, the academic community has yet to map out the precise paths of their spread and reproduction. This issue follows these intricate traces, not seeking causality, but focusing on how we write about plants, how humans interact with these productive landscapes, and how everyday life is transformed by plants.
Author: Yao Jiang, Hangping Yang, Mingyu Zhuang
Design: Zian Lu, Mingyu Zhuang
June 2024 (first print)
Chinese, 153 x 205mm, Four-color printing with Chinese binding
Finding the mother tree of Guanxi pomelo (Guanxi Mi You) in Pinghe County, Zhangzhou, Fujian, China. 2023. 11.
An interior look at the publication.
NB.
Also see the associated exhibition project Hidden Sweetness.