Me & My Massey
Mixed Media Diptych, each 24" x 30" on raised plywood panel.
Paper, acrylic, ink, varnish, decals and found objects.
Me & My Massey is a celebration of the MF135. This model would have been made around 1964. This collage celebrates its life as a workhorse, from its purchase for £2300 in 2002.
The invoices included describe a few of the call outs to the tractor from the Agricultural Engineers, Reg Eversham. Reg who worked into his nineties, used to wear a brown coat with a notebook in his top pocket, where he would record all the parts used, with a short pencil, in order to invoice for them at the end of the month. His nephew, Kevin was his mechanic, he was the AA, the emergency service on the local tractor scene.
The instruction books and manuals were used when we replaced the clutch and the hydraulic pump ourselves. The Pump seal and various washers are seen in the work.
The map inside the tyre shows the farm, where the tractor is used daily.
The broken headlight and side light have never been replaced because the tractor is not often used in the dark and seldom taken on to any road.
The photographs shown here illustrate some of the faults and breakdowns we have had together:
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Very often it won't start - This can be a flat battery, Running out of diesel, a faulty starter motor, or the key has been lost!
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The kill or stop switch pulls out to stop the engine, one day it never worked and the engine was running all day till the mechanic arrived.
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The steering can lock if both brake pedals become separated, that's when a wall got knocked over by accident.
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The Clutch has been replaced and the dials to show tractor hours, speed, revs, battery amps and fuel gauge have never worked.
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Even the large tractor tyres get punctures.
Farming is a hard life and now there are bigger and more efficient tractors that map crops via GPS, fewer people in the UK want to work a vintage tractor on the land, instead they are kept like vintage cars and refurbished and polished. In parts of Africa and the developing agri economy these models are sought after, they are bought here at auction, stripped down and shipped overseas for a new career.
