An ode to the weird fruit bowl

Tyler Watamanuk on the niche of wacky fruit bowls. 

In 1999, the Finnish ceramic company Arabia released a small collection in collaboration with designer Tony Alfström. The objects are colloquially referred to as fruit bowls, but to call them that means to use the term in the loosest sense. (At least one eBay listing went with “Sculptural Fruit Holder.”) One of Alfström’s designs is shaped like a star with bulbous, rounded edges instead of points, and the other is an elongated oval with a hollowed center. Both are made of porcelain with a high-gloss glaze that rivals that of a John McCracken monolith. The shape is wildly different from most of Arabia’s catalog, made up of classic and unfussy offerings from the long-standing industry titan. 

Alfström’s designs split the difference between sculpture and industrial design—evoking the playfulness of the Memphis Group with Anish Kapoor’s contrast between solid and void. Or in Alfström’s case: full of fruit and empty. Odd Eye NYC, a vintage shop based out of New York, has sold a few over the years. They sum the objects up, “Suitable as a fruit bowl, catchall, table sculpture.” That ambiguous function is all part of the appeal.

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