The Wisconsin Project: Charlie's Place, Hortonville, WI

17.10.12

Charlie's Place, Hortonville, WI

Charlie's Place, 806 W Main Street, Hortonville, Wisconsin, August 15, 2012

Elvis Sighting at Charlie's Drive-In, Hortonville, Wisconsin, August 15, 2012

Carl Mann and sister Rachel present an enveloping "shabby chic" dining experience at Charlie's Drive-In having instinctively turning the family restaurant into participation-based art with a dash of performance. A great time to check Charlie's out and get a fishwich deluxe, onion rings and a black cow is during "death week" -- the anniversary of Elvis Presley's death. Classic cars, rockabillies, Carl dressed as Elvis, wife Tory as Marilyn Monroe bustle all around as Charlie's unfurls a rich social experience of the sort that corporate America can only describe on their websites but can never attain. We shot our last Kodachrome movie film there in 2010 to document the history of the place and the story of Carl's metamorphosis into Elvis.

Charlie's in Kodachrome by J. Shimon & J. Lindemann, regular 8 mm, 19:27, 2010

2 comments:

Unknown23:46
I am the third sibling who lives far away but grew up around this restaurant when our parents owned it, and worked there as a kid through parts of my 20s along with my whole family. What my bro and sis have done with this place is nothing short of astonishing, and I'll tell you, sometimes I want a Charlie's bacon chee, onion rings, and black cow so damn bad I consider boarding a plane. Long live Carl and Rachel's!!
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Stew Garson00:25
Well done,had a little Pulp Fiction feel, nice. you did a great job of capturing the essence of "Charlie's Place"
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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.