How To Turn Your Fruit and Veg Bowl Into a Mini Art Installation With Hattie Molloy

Artist Hattie Molloy finds joy in elevating the everyday. “I really love taking something that people view as a mundane task and seeing it differently,” she tells Broadsheet. “Let’s make it a bit fun.”

Known for large-scale temporal installations and floral styling and photography (she’s even turned her favourite pictures into calendars and wall art), Molloy is an old hand at conjuring beauty from perishable objects.

Why apply those skills to basic necessities? As Molloy points out, fruit and veg are increasingly pricey investments, and they last longer than flowers. Plus, “you get to eat it eventually”.

Creating food art has become especially significant for Molloy since she was diagnosed with functional neurological disorder 18 months ago, she says. The condition means she spends most of her time at home; even going for an (assisted) trip to the farmer’s markets is now a big deal. “Because my world has become so small, I need to find ways to spark joy in what I have access to,” she explains. “I guess I’ve started to look at the more everyday things that I can play around with.”

Here are her tips for elevating your fruit and veg into feel-good works of art.

Shop creatively
Next time you’re at the greengrocer, shop like an artist. Molloy makes a list of ingredients for upcoming meals before leaving the house: this is her “base stuff”. Then it gets a bit more interpretive. “I like the fruit and veg that isn’t perfect looking,” she says. “I especially like things that look a little bit weird, like they might attack you. That’s what I want in my fruit bowl.”

Seek out interesting colours, shapes and textures. Look for “ugly” produce, and unusual versions of your regular picks – mini eggplants instead of the standard size, or white zucchinis rather than green ones. Some of Molloy’s favourite buys are dragon fruit, rambutans, mini watermelons, truss and heirloom tomatoes, and rainbow chard.

Try to source produce that’s still got greenery attached, she advises. A branch of lemons or a stalk of mini pineapples will add a “little bit of extra gorgeousness” to your arrangement.

Choose your vessels
“It doesn’t have to be one dedicated bowl,” Molloy says. “I usually like to create a bit of a storyboard because then I see it all … Not just doing one giant bowl, but having little moments.”

Molloy’s go-to vessels include crockery side plates, vintage brass dishes, placemats, coasters, vases and doilies. “Sometimes it’s about letting things have space and having a little hero moment. Then it’s about the vessel,” she says. “You could get a beautiful little lace doily and then put a gorgeous tomato on it, so that lace doily just elevates the tomato. And then you’re like, ‘Oh my god, look at this beautiful, beautiful tomato!”

Think about height, think about placement
Creating different levels in your installation adds visual interest, Molloy says. Group vessels in a range of heights – you could even boost some up by placing them on an upturned bowl or terracotta pot. “Stack them up so that you have movement,” she says. “I want mountains, I want valleys, I want my eye to travel.”

As for placement, your installation can be a multi-room affair: “I have a pineapple on my mantelpiece. I have pumpkins on my coffee table. They’re everywhere throughout the house. I don’t think fruit and veg just needs to be in the kitchen.”

Sturdy stuff on the bottom, perishables on top
“Try and keep in mind what’s perishable,” Molloy says. “You don’t want to layer tomatoes on top of tomatoes, because then you’ll get a mouldy tomato on the bottom.”

As far as possible, place everything where you can see it (and easily grab and eat it). Create a base with hardy stuff like pumpkin, onion, garlic, melons and citrus. These are the “key bits that last quite a long time”, Molloy says, so you won’t have to replenish them as often. “Then you just add your little seasonal, fresh moments.”

She also recommends starting off with items in bulk. Grouping together masses of lemons, limes or onions can have a big impact.

Stack, drape, clump, hang
Now it’s time to form your mini art installation. “You can be as playful as you like. This is a time to experiment with placement and shapes and form,” Molloy explains. Just make sure it “looks intentional”.

Try different ways of presenting fruit and veg. Smaller produce like radishes and beets can be formed into pyramids or towers. Truss tomatoes or grapes on the vine can drape luxuriously from bowls of lemon or onion to “create a little bit of movement”. Bunch together sticks of rosemary, asparagus spears or salad onions with twine or wire and poke them into towering creations. String up chilli peppers or garlic and hang on the wall.

There are no rules, Molloy says, just “make fun shapes”.

Add some props
Fruits and vegetables are the heroes of your installation, but Molloy encourages a mixed media approach. Potted herbs such as basil or chives make a great addition, she says, as does “a cheap and cheerful bunch” of flowers in a simple vase.

Try dried arrangements (Molloy favours dried alliums such as onion flowers), foraged greenery, quail eggs and sprouts. It doesn’t even have to be edible, if it makes you smile. “I have a collection of glass fruit that I love to add to my displays,” Molloy says. “There’s a Murano glass tomato I have that gets a lot of display time.”

Play around, find joy
“As adults, we don’t have a lot of play,” Molloy explains. “When you’re a kid you just play because it’s fun. There are no expectations attached. You don’t have to post about it on Instagram, you don’t have to share it with people. You just do it because it feels good. And I think that as we get older we lose a lot of that playfulness and inquisitiveness and creativity. So, if you can inject that into doing a fruit bowl, that is a little playful time.”

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