Critical DMs: ’I haven’t got a brain, only straw’ — Scarecrows at the Minnesota State Fair
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Critical DMs are lightly edited Slack conversations by members of the MPR News arts team about Minnesota art and culture.
This week, arts editor Max Sparber and senior arts reporter and critic Alex V. Cipolle discuss the scarecrow display in the Minnesota State Fair’s Ag-Hort-Bee section.
Max Sparber: All right, let’s while away the hours, conferrin’ with the flowers. Consultin’ with the rain.
Alex V. Cipolle: “Wizard of Oz” soundtrack playing.
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Sparber: Today we are talking about part of the State Fair crop art contest that doesn’t get as much attention, the scarecrows.
Cipolle: A much more freewheeling affair.
Sparber: It instantly became my favorite. I want to start out by mentioning that, at least this year, it was the part of the State Fair that most represented Minnesota's ongoing mission to claim “The Wizard of Oz” as being our own thing.
Which makes sense, because “The Wizard of Oz” has a scarecrow. However, he was not represented this year as one of the Fair’s scarecrows.
Cipolle: And Minnesota had Judy Garland.
Sparber: Yeah, I think when the ruby slippers were stolen, we really laid claim to that movie. Even though Dorothy was from Kansas and the Wizard from Nebraska. It’s very Midwestern, anyway.
There are two “Wizard of Oz” references I saw among the scarecrows at the Fair this year.
Cipolle: The Wicked Witch of the West is one, which was fantastic. I love a classic green witch
Sparber: Her sister is there, too. Crushed under a bench. Dorothy stands above her.
The theme of this scarecrow is “What if The Wizard of Oz took place at the MN State Fair,” and it is brilliant. Dorothy has a butter sculpture head.
Cipolle: That one had layers and layers of Fair. The most meta scarecrow. I think her hair was curled butter packaging too?
Sparber: It was.
I feel like I have never really paid attention to the scarecrows before this year.
Cipolle: I never have at the Fair. And it’s a sleeper hit. It’s similar to crop art paintings in that it had a lot of fun pop culture and current event inspiration. Like Snoop Dog at the Paris Olympics. And chef from “The Bear.”
Sparber: The more classic crop art, the pictures made with seeds, have now largely consumed one room at the Ag-Hort-Bee, so the scarecrows have been moved out into a hallway. They’re less crushed in and more visible. And I love how chaotic they are.
Cipolle: And what we know of the rules for scarecrow entries, they are much more lax than crop art.
Sparber: I feel like the seed illustrations are immediately comprehensible. You look at them and you know what you’re seeing: For some reason, Minnesotans make political cartoons out of seeds. It feels like a very mature folk art.
Cipolle: Yes, the “croppies” as they call themselves, have definitely elevated crop art.
Sparber: But the scarecrows feel inchoate and reckless, they’re really unexpected and wild.
Cipolle: Some scarecrows were downright freaky. And I mean that in every sense of the word.
Sparber: If I can get Freudian, the seed art images feel like the Fair's ego: very clear and precise. The scarecrows feel like the Fair's id, just this roiling unconscious need for expression. To me that's very exciting.
You end up with a scarecrow Bob Ross making a painting of a scarecrow.
Cipolle: Or a goth loon scarecrow.
Sparber: That one? Legitimately terrifying.
Cipolle: Or my absolute favorite: The owl scarecrow made of dyed mop heads. A fierce pastel dream.
Sparber: Scarecrows exist in such a delightfully creepy place in our national psyche. There are so many horror movies about scarecrows.
Cipolle: And of course the Scarecrow from Batman.
Sparber: I would never be afraid of a seed illustration of Fairchild the Gopher, but make him a scarecrow? Nightmares.
Cipolle: So if I may offer one suggestion for the scarecrow display?
Sparber: Please do.
Cipolle: Move it outside! I want to see these ghoulies in action. Let some birds dare peck at them. And then light it all spooky at night.
Sparber: If they get moved too far from the seed paintings, birds will take over the Ag-Hort-Bee area and consume all the art.
Cipolle: Worth it. Crop artist tell me pests are always eating their art anyway.
Sparber: Seed paintings have had their time. The time of the scarecrow is on us.
Just move them into the Fair’s haunted house, where they belong.
Cipolle: The lawn of the haunted house. It would be a sensation. I’m in. Forever a scarecrow gal now.
Sparber: If you make a scarecrow next year, what will it be?
Cipolle: Oh great question. Thinking ... Thinking …
Got it. Childless cat lady.
Sparber: Stealing the political thunder from the seed paintings! I like it!
Cipolle: Essentially the cat lady from “The Simpsons.” Which I’ve been for Halloween before.
Sparber: Put a recording in its head that reproduces that character’s senseless babbling and giggling. That will chase away crows!
Cipolle: For anyone still reading, I’m trademarking this.
Sparber: TM TM TM.
Cipolle: And you Max? What scarecrow would you create?
Sparber: Bob Ross. But he's setting fire to a wall of seed paintings.
Cipolle: 🔥
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