crEasing into Retirement: An Aussie Artist & the Elevator

Thursday, October 11, 2018

An Aussie Artist & the Elevator

Throughout the summer I had been hearing of a painting (mural of sorts) happening in a small town in South Dakota. There were TV reports and updates, facebook posts, and the posting from a friend who had driven out of the way to see this most unusual art. It was on my MUST SEE when we visited Mom this fall.

The mural is on a grain elevator, which in and of itself, is an unusual canvas. It is in a small community, not close to a major roadway or one of the larger SD communities. It was painted by an artist from Australia. Huh? What?

Not only was it a must see, but it deserved some research, as there had to be a story behind an Aussie artist painting a grain elevator in the middle of SD...well, sort of the middle of SD...

population 747

farming community

"An internationally-known Australian artist, Guido van Helten, is using Agtegra's Faulkton grain elevator as his canvas this summer to paint a giant mural which will take several weeks to complete. Van Helten visited Faulkton in the summer of 2017 to gain insight from the community so his art will reflect the strong community spirit.

Public and private funds were raised for the Faulkton project."

So how did an internally-known Aussie artist choose Faulkton for his next project?

David Hedt, known as 'Aussie Dave' to folks in Faulkton to differentiate him from other Daves and also, because he is from Australia.

The story of the grain elevator starts in a Melbourne pub in 1999, when Hedt first learned of Faulkton. He came to work there a few years later, then left, then kept coming back, eventually starting some businesses and making it his home.

In 2016, Hedt's parents came to visit and drove into town against a beautiful sunset. His dad said, "Why don't you call Guido and have him paint something on your elevator?" Hedt thought it was a crazy idea, but decided to give it a try.

"Guido" is Australian muralist Guido Van Helten. One of his first big projects was a photo-realistic mural on the Brim Silo in Brim, Victoria, Australia, not far from where Hedt's family farms. Brim, a town of about 300, has seen an influx of visitors and a multi-million dollar impact from Van Helten's creation.

And that was the beginning of the grain elevator mural in Faulkton, a project unofficially believed to be the third largest public art piece in South Dakota, after Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial, covering three sides of the 110-foot tall structure. But the story of Faulkton is far more than just a mural. It's a tale of history and hope and passion for community, and it illustrates what can happen when the people of a town "believe in possible."