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Hugh Watkins
A Reflection on the Disappearing Family
Farm and the Beauty of the Barn
Watkins has produced a series of 15 thematically related
prints based on the statics that 2% of the U.S. population
are farmers and that 2% of the farms produce 50% of
the food.The original idea for the Barn Prints arose
from a search for the largest possible surface from
which to make a woodblock print. The currentmonoprints
are 60X65" and 80X84". They were produced
by painting directly onto the barn wood with oil paints
and, with the paint still wet, unfurling canvas face
down over the painting and burnishing the back to
transfer the paint to the canvas.The term "broad
side" has a double meaning in its relation both
to the side of a barn and to the older work "broadside"
referring to a leaflet or printed page bearing a notice
or advertisement. Barn sides were often painted with
words advertising the name of the farm or its product
or the ubiquitous Mail Pouch Tobacco. These barn billboards
nicely fit both meanings of "broad-side."
Given that text and barns go together, Watkins has
substituted for the expected "Chew Mail Pouch"
with variations on the words FEED, U.S. and 2%. Any
one of these words has probably appeared on a barn
in some context. For example, 2% might refer to 2%
milk and FEED might refer to animal feed. Taken together
out of context the words might imply a new meaning
which is that 2% FEED US. (U.S. can be read either
as United States or simply "US.")Watkins
work implies that we interact with food so often that
we rarely consider the animal that had been butchered
or the seeds that have been planted. Packaging and
marketing give food a facade that has little relation
to bodily nourishment. Much of our food is being imported
over great distances. When viewing Watkins work it
seems strange that we feel so intimate with our food
yet we know so little about it. The notion that 2%
feed us raises many questions about how our food is
produced and distributed and who profits from it.
It calls into question the way our cultural and social
institutions have been transformed in recent years,
often without much public awareness or comment.And
what will become of the architecture of the family
farm - the barn?
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