The Wisconsin Project: Lake Michigan, Manitowoc, WI

23.7.12

Lake Michigan, Manitowoc, WI

Lake Michigan, Manitowoc, Wisconsin, August 9, 2010
© J. Shimon & J. Lindemann

Found: Rice Lake, near Spooner, Wisconsin by Don Bingham, circa 1965


Found: Benoit Lake, near Spooner, Wisconsin by Don Bingham, circa 1965

Found: Mallard Lake, near Spooner, Wisocnsin by Don Bingham, circa 1965
Caption: Relax and enjoy fishing, boating or swimming on this beautiful lake in the "Fish Bowl of Wisconsin."

"I'm over lakes," pronounced a friend as we approached the picnic table situated along the Lake Michigan shore in Manitowoc. Cynics were perhaps compelled by the abundance of color lake photographs and general fawning over lake views. Such views were among the most predominant depictions of Wisconsin for decades--often featuring slogans like "the land of sky blue waters" or "Relax and enjoy fishing, boating or swiming on this beautiful lake." Lakes in the days of Medford, Wisconsin photographer Don Bingham were portrayed as spaces for recreational and visual pleasure and the staging ground of many a nostalgic memory as families retreated to their lake cottage for the summer. Twenty-first century lakes in Wisconsin, politicized by Nitrogen fertilizers, noise from Jet Skis, and over-development of the shoreline, are the primary source of drinking water for many cities. Lake Michigan, for example, supplies Manitowoc, Milwaukee, Chicago, and other cities with their water. The Great Lakes Compact established a management plan for preserving the water resource in the Great Lakes Basin as awareness of the fragility of lakes grows.

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THE WISCONSIN PROJECT

Our research-driven Wisconsin Project contemplates the rooted-ness and state-of-mind resulting from inhabiting a single place, our native Wisconsin, for a long time. Through critiquing postcard views both made and found, we learn a great deal about past and present Wisconsin. We began making postcard views of the places immediately around our studio and on our drives around Wisconsin in about 2008. We use the vintage postcard film format and print the cards in palladium and cyanotype. By communicating details of a specific place, seeming to register only marginally on the national radar, the project seeks to bring audiences into a Wisconsin mental space. Some in the art world would argue that the Midwest, particularly Wisconsin, makes for banal “fly over” subject matter. Our project challenges that by finding meaning in the ordinary and inviting audiences to examine, dialog, and reflect on the particular emotional quality of the idiosyncrasies of place and the perceptions of those both inside and outside of it. Sometimes distant memories are involved and a longing for a time now gone. Wisconsin’s glacier inflected landscape and proximity to the Great Lakes creates an exotic arena for living that informs our project. The life cycle plays out and rural and urban ruins serve as monuments to existences as people, places, and ideas surface then vanish. Ultimately, we aim to grapple with complex perceptions of Wisconsin ranging from nostalgic, romantic, and idealized--as depicted on myriad real photo postcard and standard tourist postcards--to mysterious, dark, and Gothic as conveyed in works of art and literature such as Michael Lesy's "Wisconsin Death Trip" book and Werner Herzog's "Stroszek" film. The project culminated in a residency with workshops and community collaborations and the installation "We Go From Where We Know" at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center 10.13.2013-3.7.2014 and later the Harvestore Bandshell for Fermentation Fest in 10.2014. The blog continues the exploration of postcards.