The Wisconsin Project: Joe McCarthy's Grave, Appleton, WI

5.10.12

Joe McCarthy's Grave, Appleton, WI

Joe McCarthy's Grave with apparition, St. Mary's Cemetery
2019 West Prospect Avenue, Appleton, Wisconsin, September 14, 2012
© J. Shimon & J. Lindemann

Joe McCarthy's Grave with Fox River view, St. Mary's Cemetery
2019 West Prospect Avenue, Appleton, Wisconsin, September 14, 2012
© J. Shimon & J. Lindemann

"SO LONG, JOE," TULI SAID AS WE WALKED DOWN THE HILL

The legacy of Joe McCarthy (1908-1957), the Wisconsin farm boy turned WWII hero turned anti-communist US Senator (1947-1957), looms over Appleton, Wisconsin. McCarthy's claim to have lists of communist infiltrators made him a household name in the early 1950s as he appeared repeatedly on television and in Life (magazine) fueling American cold war paranoia. Arguably McCarthy remains among the most famous and notorious Wisconsinites. Wisconsin portrait photographers John Glander and Walter Sheffer listed the senator as an important part of their portfolio.

After reading Ed Sanders awesome Fug You: An Informal History of the Peace Eye Bookstore, the Fuck You Press, the Fugs, and Counterculture in the Lower East Side (Da Capo Press, 2011) recounting the Exorcism he, Tuli Kupferberg, Allen Ginsberg, and a group of 75 friends performed in February 1968 at McCarthy's grave, we hastened to the cemetery in Appleton. The Fugs are said to have played the Cinderella Ballroom in Appleton on February 19, 1968. Sanders described the action as "dignified and respectful" occurring as it did just a few months after he and other Vietnam war protesters staged an Exorcism (and levitation) of the Pentagon. Their plan for Appleton was to "lecture the ghost (or summoned apparition) of the Red-baiting senator for his homophobia" and for "the careers wrecked through falsehoods" (p. 295-300) The grave along the Fox River in St. Mary's Parish Cemetery was certainly serene the day we visited (in honor of J. Lindemann's birthday). Perhaps the Exorcism worked? We sat before the stone pondering it for awhile then made several negatives, one of which contains an orb emanating from a yellow silk rose filled marble urn. That Tail Gunner Joe flamed out by age 48 of complications of alcoholism reminded us of the "Wisconsin: Not so Boring if You're Drunk" t-shirt we bought online recently.

Ken Weaver with woman who "agreed to array herself atop
the senator's stone as an offering," February 1968
(Ed Sanders Collection) from Fug You
Note: Froze over Fox River in background

Ed Sanders chanted the final words of Plato's Republic in
Greek after Allen Ginsberg lead an invocation to
bisexual Greek and Indian Gods to Exorcise McCarthy's grave, February 1968
(Ed Sanders Collection) from Fug You

Senator Joseph Mccarthy film obit newsreel circa 1957 provides a 1:44 account of his illustrious career

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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.