An art piece inside the Edmonton Expo Centre is getting attention for incorporating edible, provincially-sourced food into a massive agriculture-themed mural. Theodora Harasymiw’s The Art of Farming can be found as you enter the Farmfair International event being held until Saturday. The mosaic of grains, seeds, vegetables, fruits and other edible elements were all provided by Albertan organizations and farmers. Harasymiw said the eight-foot-by-20-inches piece is meant to represent the bounty grown across the province, from Taber sugar beets in the south to wheat in the north. “It pushed the boundaries of how I work as an artist,” she told CTV News Edmonton on Thursday, adding that she hasn’t heard of anyone creating a mural of this kind outside of Australia. Harasymiw is a visual artist who typically works in mediums of broken pieces of China, glass, bone or rock. “Everything I usually work with has got a permanent lifespan, or an extended lifespan,” she reflected. “This does not and it’s very lovely.” Each item in the piece, from multiple types of colourful potatoes, to alfalfa, to purple cabbage and red lentils, has been carefully placed to depict an idyllic farmland scene. The other challenge, which carpenter Calvin Burns helped the artist with, was the delicacy of handling the food items in a way that can still be reused. Any and all good quality, edible items in the piece after Farmfair will be donated, meaning nothing can be glued down to the table. “The table is on a slant, so everything is going to roll. We had to use gravity in our favour,” Harasymiw explained. “Our incredible table craftsman Calvin created (it) so the stripes of the farm fields are all divided so we could fill them.” Lori Wheeler with Explore Edmonton said the mosaic’s role is to get people thinking of where their food comes from as they enter Farmfair. “It’s a fusion of agriculture and art, bringing together all the produce … we were looking for a way to show the broad scope of what agriculture represents.” Harasymiw’s piece includes more than 50 kinds of Alberta-grown foods and pays tribute to Métis beadwork, folk art and the natural design of honeycomb. The installation will sit at the Expo Centre until the end of Farmfair International, which is free to attend, on Saturday. With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Marek Tkach
