The Wisconsin Project: Lake Winnebago, Fond du Lac, WI

5.12.12

Lake Winnebago, Fond du Lac, WI

Lake Winnebago looking East, Menomonee Park, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, October 17, 2012

Found: Yachting on Lake Winnebago, Fond du Lac, Wis. No. 4842 circa 1912.
Written on the backside in pencil: "Dear Papa, Mamma said that you should
hurryup and get here because Mrs. and Dr. Jones are coming up heee.
Am having a fine time. Florence Robbins. postmarked Taycheedah, Wisconsin July 1 P.M. 1912.

We've been photographing Lake Michigan for years -- the horizon is always the water touching sky. ILake Winnebago reveals a shoreline from some vantage points even though it is the largest inland lakes in the Wisconsin and one of the largest in the US. We could see a wind farm and trees and the lake was tumultuous the rainy day we photographed in October 2012. The Lake contains sturgeon sometimes said to be more than a hundred years old. Spearfishing sturgeon from ice shanties in February is allowed by the DNR but limited as the creatures are on the verge of extinction from poaching and over fishing. The below video documents the culture, ritual, and history of spearfishing the primal sturgeon.

Photographing the mysterious Lake Winnebago, October 17, 2012

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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.