Giant cowboy statue made of butter to be displayed in Calgary

A stock photo of butter. (Unsplash/Sorin Gheorghita)

A sculpture of a cowboy made entirely of butter is in the works in Calgary.

Officials with Contemporary Calgary say the cowboy – who will be on horseback – is the creation of Canadian artist Ghazaleh Avarzamani and will be on display at the downtown gallery starting June 4.

Contemporary Calgary says the exhibit, called Churn, Earn, Burn and then Return, is built around an “immersive Monopoly-inspired environment” and centred on a 1,000-pound (454 kilogram) butter cowboy, sculpted entirely on-site and existing only for the run of the show.

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“It’s a striking, perishable work with deep roots in Canadian history and a sharp eye on labour, accumulation, and who the game was really designed for,” the gallery said in a news release.

Work on the sculpture is already underway.

In addition to the buttery buckaroo, the gallery will also have exhibits from Haig Aivazian – an animated cartoon mini-series called You may own the lanterns, but we have the light – and Adelita Husni Bey’s film Agency, filmed in Rome in 2014, which documents 35 students as they navigate a political simulation.

David Leinster, CEO of Contemporary Calgary, says all three artists create work that is as visually stunning as it is thought-provoking.

“These three exhibitions ask us to look more carefully at the world around us - at the games we play, the systems that govern public space and the quiet mechanisms through which power is organized and contested,” he said.

The exhibits open on June 4 from 5-9 p.m.

The opening night is free; no registration required.