The Wisconsin Project: Found: St. Mary's Springs Sanitarium, Fond du Lac, WI

21.1.14

Found: St. Mary's Springs Sanitarium, Fond du Lac, WI

Found: St. Mary's Springs Sanitarium, Near Fond du Lac, Wis.
Written in fountain pen on back:
"Dear Sis. Will answer your kind and welcome postal.
Well why don't you and George write me a letter. I have been waiting patiently.
Well good bye from your loving Sis."
Not stamped or post marked. Circa 1901.

Built in 1901 and run as a sanitarium until 1909, St. Mary's Springs was operated as a rest resort with hot springs according to the Wisconsin Historical Society. The Sisters of Saint Agnes turned it first into a Catholic girls college prep school and later a Catholic co-ed K-12 school. The building on the right, Boyle Hall, was torn down in September 2005 after years of benign neglect. The building on the left does not appear in recent photographs. Ghost stories about a stillborn baby and the suicide with crucifix of the nun who delivered it in a Boyle Hall elevator were dispelled by ghost hunter Chad Lewis.

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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.