The Wisconsin Project: Symco Shakedown, Symco, WI

23.10.12

Symco Shakedown, Symco, WI

Chopped Merc with Portapotties at Symco Shakedown, Symco, Wisconsin, August 11, 2012

Vintage campers at Symco Shakedown, Symco, Wisconsin, August 11, 2012

Unionville Saloon at Symco Shakedown, Symco, Wisconsin, August 11, 2012

Patron at Symco Shakedown, Symco, Wisconsin, August 11, 2012

Old cars, vintage campers, tattooed rockabillies, and 1950s fashion have converged on the tiny up-north town of Symco for the past four summers. Music, beer, food, concessions, haircuts and the Miss Symco Pinup Contest are all part of the scene. The Symco Shakedown drew 7,500 people in August 2012 with the aim of re-creating the feel of "pre-1964" according to the event web site. In the center of Symco (pronounced simco) is a collection of old buildings such as a tavern, barber shop, bank -- a modest version of Henry Ford's Greenfield Village. The Symco Shakedown is staged in and around these buildings to celebrate vintage Americana mainly through the veneration of vintage automobiles. Bits of modernity seep in despite the organizers best efforts. Going back in time to an America before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 can be a little scarey if you're not a white guy with a beer.

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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.