Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
In reality, really
good art is art that has some
kind of underlying meaning.
Making art is very much aboutmaking something you understand.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Welcome to the
Growing Destinations podcast,
where we take a deep dive intodestination development and
focus on a wide range of topicsfrom tourism and entertainment
to economic development andentrepreneurism and much more.
I'm your host, bill Von Bank.
Today we're exploring apowerful intersection of art,
agriculture and identity righthere in the heart of the Midwest
(00:52):
.
Our guest is Michael McMilan, athird-generation farmer and
nationally recognized glassartist, whose immersive
installation Primordial Shift isnow on view at the Rochester
Art Center in Rochester,minnesota.
Mick's work is visually stunningtowering glass ears of corn,
cast bronze leaves, surroundedby a video backdrop of fields.
(01:14):
But it also asks deeperquestions about genetic
modification, the evolution offarming and our relationship
with the land.
From his roots in ruralWisconsin to the international
world of glassmaking, mick hasspent decades blending the
precision of agriculture withthe expression of contemporary
art.
We talk with him about thejourney, what corn means to him
(01:35):
as both a crop and a symbol, whyhe's inviting all of us to
think more critically how ourfood is grown.
Michael McMilan, welcome to theGrowing Destinations podcast,
thank you.
You grew up on a family farm inWisconsin.
How did glass art enter thepicture for you?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Like any farm kid, we
had lots of freedom on the farm
and it was a matter of as a kid, you know, exploring everything
in front of us and it has ledme to eventually.
I went to college and I decided, obviously I started in
agriculture and I'm at thecampus in River Falls, wisconsin
(02:15):
, of course, right next toMinnesota, and that's a big ag
school.
But I made a shortcut throughthe art department one day
heading for class and then theywere throwing pots.
I made a shortcut through theart department one day heading
for class and then they werethrowing pots and it was kind of
there where I saw the dirt, themud, and I just immediately
responded to it.
A couple of years later I went aquarter abroad.
(02:35):
I changed my major to art andwent to Europe and studied with
Erwin Eich, who was a verywell-known artist, who's a very
well-known artist.
He was an expressionist, forsure, and a contemporary in kind
of the boroughs in Munich.
It's like the same thing washappening in New York City.
We had the same kind of thinghappening in New York and it was
(02:57):
a hot time, it was a time ofchange, and I went to Europe to
study in study glass and after Igot back from college, I went
into the Peace Corps and Iworked with the Native Americans
in Bolivia.
So these are all kind of coreinstances in my life which led
(03:18):
me eventually to make work aboutfarming, and when I decided to
come back to the farm was amatter of matter of I wanted my
family to grow up with, to havethe freedoms that I had as as
far as space a lot of acreagewell, at that time, my, my
sister and husband were farmingwith my dad, and when I came
(03:40):
back to the farm, I eventuallyworked my way into being a full
partner with my sister and herhusband, and at that time I was
making more decorative work.
It was blowing glass and makingthings that were quote unquote
pretty and decorative.
Did you view it as a hobby?
(04:01):
Back then it was neverconsidered a hobby because I was
offered to teach in Californiaand at San Jose and I turned
that down because I knew that Iwould never return to the farm
if I went out there, so yourroots were always in farming.
They weren't until I got to beabout 25.
I started to realize that, youknow, there's a lot to be
offered in the rural community.
(04:22):
And so when I did come backfrom, I finished my
undergraduate and then I went tograduate school in ISU,
illinois State University, atNormal, and that's where I got
my MFA.
So that's when I decided toreturn to farm with my family
and that's when I was startingto make the transition from
(04:45):
graduate work.
You have to remember that glassdid not come into play in the
crafts until 1964.
And that's the first class thatcame out of Madison where glass
was being offered at thecollege level.
I studied with one of the veryearly students.
So we were all collectively,professors and graduate students
(05:05):
, talking to one another, askinghow do we do things, because it
was all new to everyone.
And so that real base, you know, started a small organization
called the Glass Arts Society,which has led to from a handful
of very interested artists andprofessors.
It has grown to over 10,000 ormore worldwide members.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
How did you balance
at that time bringing your
family to the farm?
How did you balance farming andart?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Well, it's a
cast-grain farm so it wasn't a
matter of having animals thatyou had to feed daily.
So what I did is it just kindof fell into place where I had
basically four seasons plantingthe midsummer, where I was
selling my artwork, and thenharvest, and then of course the
last part of that was making thework in the wintertime, and of
(05:56):
course, both farming and makingglass we need assistance.
So I was able to keep anemployee all year long.
So a lot of the glass makingthat I did, even then it
required more than one person.
So the bigger stuff that I makenow, you know, requires four
people.
The mass, just the very mass ofwhat I make just requires a lot
(06:20):
more effort.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
What inspired you to
start exploring corn as a
central theme in your artwork?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I started to make
decorative work or work that was
quote-unquote more acceptableand in reality really good art
is art that has some kind ofunderlying meaning.
Making art is very much aboutmaking something you understand,
(06:48):
and it was in 1995 that Iplanted my first modified seed.
And it was at that very momentwhen I said you know, I've got
to make something about my lifeas a farmer, and corn, of course
we were growing 1,000 acres ayear.
It is what I know and, true towriting good writers, they write
(07:08):
about what they know.
And so I started making corn,just to get started with it, and
I made a piece called minefield, which were very large,
two-foot large balls with earsof corn sticking out, so they
looked like a mine.
But I hung them next to thefloor on bungee cords and then
you start bouncing them andpushing them.
Pretty soon they break.
(07:29):
And then you start bouncingthem and pushing them, pretty
soon they break.
If you get the whole idea of theminefield, was this idea that
this is an explosive issue?
At that time in 1995, therewere riots in Berkeley about the
Franken-Korn Frankensteins, sotiming was absolutely perfect
for that particular piece.
(07:49):
But I didn't want to come fromit started realizing that it was
too negative and that's notreally what I was after.
The concept here was simplythat this is just hey, look,
wake up people.
This is a big deal and it's apart of science.
Get used to it.
And I'm very pro geneticmodification.
Don't get the wrong idea Simplybecause of what it's done for
(08:11):
me.
Personally, I can see the goodsides of it.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
You have this
incredible exhibit, primordial
shift, on display at RochesterArts Center through the summer.
You've called it a reflectionon change.
What kind of change are youhoping people consider when they
experience this piece?
Speaker 2 (08:29):
well, first of all, I
also understand that Chaz
Oldenburg is, you know, aMinnesota, very well-known
artist worldwide and his wholeconcept was to take small
objects and make them big,because we're not accustomed to
seeing, for example, a littlelight socket, you know, 12 feet
in scale when you walk in.
It's a shock.
(08:49):
So the shock value is part ofit.
But I want people to thinkabout, well, what does this
really mean?
I'm not necessarily saying it'sgood or bad for you as an
individual.
I want you to look at thepieces, because they're big.
Why we have to realize that youknow production worldwide.
We are not the leading producerof corn any longer.
(09:10):
Brazil has passed us up inbeans and corn simply because
it's you know.
They have thousands of acresthey're going to put under
production.
We're competing very directly,in a political way, with China.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
How does your life as
a farmer shape the way you
approach your art, and maybevice versa?
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Has life as a farmer
shaped the way you approach your
art and maybe vice versa.
It's definitely changed myperspective on American
production because we were theleading producer, but we are
living today in a globalinteraction, with our natural
resources being sucked up inmany different ways.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
How do you hope
people from a region like
Rochester, so connected tofarming, will respond to the
exhibit Farmers?
Speaker 2 (09:52):
respond to it they
don't see well.
First of all, we have tounderstand that farmers are not
likely to buy art or to maybeunderstand conceptual art,
simply because it's ourpersonality as farmers, as
(10:13):
farmers At the same time.
Art collectors don't reallyrespond that well to that
particular visual object either,simply because of the political
negativity that surrounds it.
But I just want people to lookat it and perceive it.
On a lot of the large years ofcorn there are numbers or
there's different objects on it,symbols.
There's a dice.
I use a dice in a lot of mywork.
It's a roll of the dice.
(10:33):
Farming is it's a roll of diceto make art.
Every time you open a door, Imean we take chance with our own
lives.
So it's at the same time I wantpeople to understand it's
everything is based on science.
If we don't use science andtake it forward to the next step
, other countries will.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Was there a moment in
your career when farming and
art truly merged into oneexpression for you?
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Yep, it was in 95
when I planted my first
genetically modified seed.
Suddenly I had a greaterinterest in presenting larger
work, and making the bronzelateral leaves is one way of
thinking about farmingvertically, for example.
In the future we're going tohave a lot of vertical farming.
It's going to be a veryimportant part of our food
(11:18):
source and to that extent, tothe extreme China has a complex
with.
They raised like 3 million hogsin one up 90-story building.
The complexity of that kind ofconcept farmers need to think
about big time.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
What was most
challenging about bringing
Primordial Shift to life at theRochester Arts Center.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Every single museum
I've had this piece in, the
configuration is different andthe whole idea of making the
piece in the first place byusing modular construction 30 of
these and 30 of these, and thenput these pieces all together
in 30 more pieces to make onepiece projectors the idea is
just to show people what ispossible through aesthetics.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Corn is such a symbol
in Midwestern culture.
In Rochester here we have a bigcorn tower that was part of a
food plant at one point.
Do you see corn as a metaphorfor something larger?
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yes, I mean for me
it's again, it's my work
represents something largerbecause when you see it and you
see what the projectors aredoing onto the wall, the objects
themselves throw a largerbecause of the position of the,
of the projectors at 30 feetaway or, say, 15 feet away,
(12:36):
shooting through the workSuddenly the ears are, say, 4
feet tall, but the shadows theypresent on the wall are 8 feet.
So you have this interaction.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
It is a very large
part of contemporary thought and
contemporary farming as far asthat goes, as technology and
agriculture advances, what doyou think we risk losing if we
don't reflect on where it allstarted?
Speaker 2 (13:00):
AI is coming at us
pretty fast and going back to
the minefield.
That was kind of what I wassaying.
Where are we going to go?
That was 30 years ago and I wasquestioning where is science
going to take us?
We must follow science, buthere we are at a point in
history of human history wherethings are going to change and
(13:22):
we're not going to know.
It's going to be more difficultto find out the real truth and
the real science.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Looking ahead, are
there other subjects or themes
you're excited to explorethrough your art?
Speaker 2 (13:31):
I think the art takes
on greater meaning as I
understand what's going on inthe world as a collective human
energy and source, because myworks, I feel like, has new
meaning every day when I look atit, because I'm listening to
the news and I look at it alittle bit like I have.
(13:55):
Sand is about 65 percent ofglass and I farm and I make use
the dirt to provide thephysicality of our, of our life,
our physical being.
The other part is a materialthat has it, this juicy, lush
material that can do anything.
(14:17):
It's pretty but at the sametime it can be used as extremely
fragile.
So that's why I did a lecturecalled Sand and Dirt.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Michael McMillan,
your exhibit is awesome.
I encourage people to come andsee it at the Rochester Art
Center.
It's been great to learn moreabout the intersection of
agriculture and art from yourperspective.
Thank you for being our gueston the Growing Destinations
podcast.
Well, thank you very much.
Thank you for tuning in to theGrowing Destinations podcast and
don't forget to subscribe.
(14:47):
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