The Hormel Foods team envisioned a sculpture that expressed the company’s culture and the joy its products bring to the world. They wanted something big and friendly and inviting, maybe with a little sense of humor. At meetings to decide the scope and nature of the piece, Hormel Foods team members knew they had found the right artist. Gordon Huether’s creative process is collaborative and always begins with a conversation. The part of the creative process he enjoys most is researching the history and culture of a location and listening to all the stakeholders.
“Most of the art that I do is not about me. It’s about the people who will see and interact with it every day,” Gordon says. “What I realized is I’m best at telling other people’s stories with a kind of an abstract twist.”
Gordon, who rarely creates small art, was excited by the challenge. His pieces can usually be seen from blocks away and are meant to be on the scale of the landscapes and buildings they bring to life. There is a good likelihood that you’ve walked by, under, or through one of the over 300 major installations he’s created. His art has adorned university campuses, hospitals, civic spaces and transportation centers worldwide.
He’s straightforward about the goal of his art. “I hope my work edifies humanity’s spirit,” he says. “I want to bring beauty and meaning into the world through art.”
The idea the teams finally settled on was simple: A giant 25-foot-tall stainless steel fork covered with a skin of normal-sized kitchen forks. The thousands of forks were collected from Hormel Foods team members across the company. Thousands of employees went to their family silverware drawers to participate in the project.
