The Wisconsin Project: March 2014

20.3.14

Found: Willow River Falls, Hudson, WI

Found: Willow River Falls, Hudson, Wis. Hand-colored Work E. C. Kropp, Milwaukee, 1906.
Text written in fountain pen on front reads: "I'm afraid it's wet.
Laaks fine though. A.J. Samson, Hudson, Wis." postmarked Hudson, Octobe4 24 1906, 3 PM

The damms built to generate hydroelectric power on the Willow River Falls in the early 20th century, years after the above postcard image showing one man viewing the falls while the other fishes, were removed in the 1990s after a lighting strike according to gowaterfalling.com. Efforts continue to restore the area.

16.3.14

Niagara Escarpment, Highway 55, Stockbridge, WI

Niagara Escarpment, Highway 55 & Quinney Road, Stockbridge, Wisconsin (12.14.2013)
© J. Shimon & J. Lindemann

Motoring down Highway 55 east of Lake Winnegabo, a rock ridge stretches through farm fields following the shore line of Lakes Michgan and Winnebago. Known as the Niagara Escarpment, a cliff of hard rock stretching from Wisconsin to Niagara Falls along the Great Lakes basin, it is considered the "eighth natural wonder" of Wisconsin. The ridge is the source of natural springs, quarries, a wind corridor that made the area prime for a wind farm near Pipe, Wisconsin, and more.

Map illustrating the path of the Niagara Escarpment

10.3.14

Farm with Silos, near Columbus, WI

Farm with Five Vertical Silos, Highway 73, near Columbus, Wisconsin (12.14.2013)
© J. Shimon & J. Lindemann

Some Wisconsin cows go outside and most eat silage--fermented fodder--during the winter months. Silage used to be stored in vertical silos, but many farms have converted to "ag bags" or concrete bunkers leaving the Wisconsin landscape profoundly changed.

2.3.14

Barn and Power Lines, Stockbridge, WI

Barn and Power Lines in Snowy Landscape, Highway 55 and County F, Stockbridge, Wisconsin (12.14.2013)
© J. Shimon & J. Lindemann

The power lines run parallel to the snowy prairie foregrounding the iconic
Wisconsin barn protected by a forest.

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.