The Wisconsin Project: Found: Up North Tourists Enjoy View

3.8.13

Found: Up North Tourists Enjoy View

Found: Vacation Paradise, Solon Springs, Wisconsin.
Photographed and distributed © Gallagher's Studio, Duluth, Minnesota.
Written on back in ballpoint:
"We are enjoying the lake where my folks live - swimming, water skiing and drinking coffee...Pastor Swanson."
Postmarked Solon Springs, July 5, 1962. Circa 1960s.

Found: Luther Park Bible Camp, Chetek, Wisconsin.
A warm day at Luther Park leads campers to the waterfront. What will it be?
Water skiing, pontoon or canoe ride or a refreshing swim?
What ever it is will be great fun as young Christians find adventure in Christ.
Published by G. R. Brown Co., Rt. 5, Eau Claire, WI 54701.
Made by Dexter Press, New York. Circa 1970s.

Found: Ashland, Wisconsin.
Pulpwood is rafted across Lake Superior from points in Minnesota and Canada to Ashland,
where it is reshipped by rail to mills. In the foreground is a relic of the early logging days.
Logs were pulled out of the forest by this method. Tourists enjoy view of the harbor from Ashland Park.
© Photo and Pub. by Gallagher's Studio of Photography, 920 E. 1st Street, Duluth, Minn. Circa 1960s.

Water and trees surround most places in Wisconsin. These resources have become increasingly mediated in the 21st century meaning more development along shores, signage indicating dangers or attractions, and the ever present Lyme Disease (from deer ticks) in the northwoods and West Nile Virus (from mosquitoes) everywhere else. Postcards from the 1960s depict the pleasures of looking in an "Up North" seemingly free of bugs and hazards while mists of DDT linger (invisibly) in the air.

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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.