<![CDATA[MING Studios

Uli Westphal's Cornucopia

'Cornucopia' exhibition flyer, featuring a typical red barn found on supermarket packaging.

'Cornucopia is a three dimensional reconstruction of a red barn and silo found on a large percentage of North American food packaging. This iconic image of the small American family farm is used, regardless of the actual production place and methods, as a vehicle to sell the product. With giant corporations controlling the majority of our food system, barns today are in a state of decay and obsolescence. As such, barns are empty vessels, void of real world functionality, filled merely with marketing value and a romantic idea that customers cling on to. Cornucopia stands as a monument that refers both to the roots of American agriculture as well as to it's hijacking by the food industries. The work was developed during a four week residency at Ming Studios in Boise, Idaho.' -Uli Westphal

The Move from MING to Peaceful Belly Farm

Sculpture 'Cornucopia' at MING Studios. 2014 | wood, paint, aluminum | barn: 214 cm x 250 cm x 367 cm, silo: 275 cm x 90 cm x 90 cm

Uli Westphal's sculpture, Cornucopia, was the center piece of MING Studio's inaugural exhibition. On October 30, the miniaturized, big red barn made the move through Boise and the Foothills, to it's new home in the Dry Creek Valley at Peaceful Belly Farm.

The barn, silo and all, made the journey 100% intact, making the travel itself a type of public intervention work as the barn went by the Capitol, up Harrison, passed Simplot Hill and into the Foothills. Cornucopia is now on permanent public view at the farm.

Special thanks to Noel Sr., Noel Jr., Sam, Clay, and the whole crew at Peaceful Belly Farm, for making the move possible.