“When I started, it wasn’t something people were talking about, and now people are gradually learning where their food comes from.”
An Okotoks-area metal artist puts the dangerous nature of our food supply on full display.
Two years ago, Michael Perks began sculpting an antique swather in 1971 using his signature medium of precision-cut ornate metal, which he dubbed The Instability of Farming.
“What the piece started was my way to face the world in lockdown,” Perks said in an interview with Tires on the opening day of the Calgary Stampede.
“When I started, it wasn’t what people were talking about, and now people are slowly learning that this is where their food comes from.
“So it really became meaningful over the last two years.”
The swather is currently the centerpiece at 2022 Calgary Stampede’s Western Art Show, located in Western Oasis, and comes from the Patterson family, which belongs to his wife Claire’s uncle.
Scenes and objects endemic to the world of agriculture were cut and grafted onto the large farm machine.
“The whole concept is torn by enough metal along with wheat, canola seeds, and gophers cut into it, so you can see it, but you still have the concept of what a machine is,” said Perks, who works . outside his studio, Little Monkey Metalworks, west of Okotoks.
“The idea of being interactivity is for people to know it and actually see what a farmer is.”
With strong roots in the agriculture and rural life of the Foothills, Perks wants people to understand the complex and interconnected world of farming and the feeders of the world.
“There are all these tools that people don’t know are used in making our food, and we’re pretty happy to go to the grocery store to buy zucchini,” Perks said. “We don’t fully understand that zucchini may have come from Chile or California, or its dollars and cents.
“The best statement I’ve heard is, ‘Farming is the only business where you pay full retail for all your goods to grow the crop, then you have to sell it wholesale.'”
The first factor of amazement is attracting people to the machine, Perks said, followed by an inquisitive review.
“People don’t really know what a swather is, to be close to something big, it gives them a little bit of a sense of awe,” he said.
“They see the machine first, then they see the brilliant factor, and then for fun they try to find the gophers inside the machine instead of a machine.
“After that, they went away and they learned, ‘This is how my food is cut and harvested.'”
Over the five -minute interview, many patrons stopped to examine the piece, take selfies or peek into the depths of the machine.
The whole point is to create conversation.
“It’s an actual thing that works, and now it’s art,” Perks said. “But at least let’s talk about the topic where our food comes from.”
For more information about the Western Oasis of Calgary Stampede, visit calgarystampede.com/stampede/attractions/western-oasis.
For more information about Michael Perks and his studio, Little Monkey Metalworks, visit littlemonkeymetal.com.
