Unlike Iowans, many urbanites from outside the Midwest see the Buttercow as kitschy folk craft rather than true art. Some who are unaccustomed to rural life find quaintness in the Buttercow, rather than seeing it as the manifestation of highly skilled ability. As fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi ironically quipped after seeing the Buttercow, “You haven’t lived until you’ve seen a life-sized cow sculpted out of butter…its fabulous.”
Though it would be easy to assume that the dismissal of butter is a product of its medium (butter) or form (cattle), both have been featured in highly regarded art installations. In 1999 the city of Chicago launched its famous “Cows on Parade” exhibit, in which local artists designed fiberglass cow statues, and exhibited them in the city. Eventually, the cows were auctioned, raising more than $20 million of charitable organizations. That same year, Margin, a Chicago art gallery, housed works of 35 local artists all related to butter in an exhibition appropriately titled Butter.Similarly, in 2003, Matthew Barney launched his Guggenheim exhibit in New York, which incorporated a number of sculptures in butter and Vaseline.
Though it would be easy to assume that the dismissal of butter is a product of its medium (butter) or form (cattle), both have been featured in highly regarded art installations. In 1999 the city of Chicago launched its famous “Cows on Parade” exhibit, in which local artists designed fiberglass cow statues, and exhibited them in the city. Eventually, the cows were auctioned, raising more than $20 million of charitable organizations. That same year, Margin, a Chicago art gallery, housed works of 35 local artists all related to butter in an exhibition appropriately titled Butter.Similarly, in 2003, Matthew Barney launched his Guggenheim exhibit in New York, which incorporated a number of sculptures in butter and Vaseline.
Matthew Barney sculptures in Vaseline
Instead, the display area rather than medium or form of the art is what contextualizes the works as craft rather than art. As Guillermo Gomez-Peña and Coco Fusco demonstrated in their series of “Two Undiscovered Amerindians” performances, the context of art is integral to the ways in which audiences interpret. In these performances Fusco and Gomez-Peña place themselves, dressed in a hybrid of modern flashy attire and pseudo-indigenous garments, in a cage with props such as televisions, plants, and a hammock. Presented as “undiscovered Amerindians,” in public plazas, natural history museums, and art galleries, they interacted with audiences through the bars of their room-sized cage. As Fusco later wrote, “We did not anticipate that our self-conscious commentary…could be believable. We underestimated public faith in museums as bastions of truth and institutional investment in that role.” She continued:
Consistently from city to city, more than half of our visitors believed our fiction and thought we were “real,” with the exception of the Whitney, where we experienced the art world equivalent of such misperceptions: some assumed that we were not the artists, but rather actors who had been hired by another artist.
Thus, their work confirmed the ways the context of the natural history museum they were taken to be “real” specimens of “undiscovered Amerindians” and in art galleries they were assumed to be performance art.
Consistently from city to city, more than half of our visitors believed our fiction and thought we were “real,” with the exception of the Whitney, where we experienced the art world equivalent of such misperceptions: some assumed that we were not the artists, but rather actors who had been hired by another artist.
Thus, their work confirmed the ways the context of the natural history museum they were taken to be “real” specimens of “undiscovered Amerindians” and in art galleries they were assumed to be performance art.
Coco Fusco & Guillermo Gomez-Peña as "Undiscovered Amerindians"
So it is not a far stretch to suggest then, that the buttercow, amidst prize-winning squashes and anamatronic milk cartons singing about the health benefits of dairy products, butter sculpture presents itself and is interpreted as a craft, rather than high art.
But, like Fusco and Gomez-Peña, Duffy works “within disciplines that blur distinctions.” If placed in the Guggenheim, her sculptures may be described as avant-garde. But in the Dairy Building, the sculptures are “pure Americana,” as 2003 Presidential hopeful Bob Graham described it.
But, like Fusco and Gomez-Peña, Duffy works “within disciplines that blur distinctions.” If placed in the Guggenheim, her sculptures may be described as avant-garde. But in the Dairy Building, the sculptures are “pure Americana,” as 2003 Presidential hopeful Bob Graham described it.
Mooorean and her anamatronic dairy products sing at the Illinois State Fair in 2003
Fusco, Coco
1994 The Other History of Intercultural Performance. The Drama Review 38(1):143-167.
1994 The Other History of Intercultural Performance. The Drama Review 38(1):143-167.
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