The Wisconsin Project: Found: Stand Rock, Wisconsin Dells, WI

4.8.14

Found: Stand Rock, Wisconsin Dells, WI

Found: STAND ROCK, DELLS OF THE WISCONSIN RIVER.
STAND ROCK is the most curious and wonderful formation in all the region.
It is a huge table supported by a single water-torn rather
irregular shaped column of rock, about 46 feet high.
The top is a great sandstone slab some 18x24 feet in area
and practically level. The is 5-1/2 feet from the main cliff.
Copyright by H. H. Bennett Studio, Wisconsin Dells, Wis.
"C.T. Art Colortone,"
Made only by Curt Teich & Co. Inc. Chicago, U.S.A. Circa 1940.

Found: Lone Rock, Dells of he Wisconsin River, Kilbourn, Wis. Published by W.S. Blatchley Kilbourn, Wis.

At first it was all about the rocks and the stunning sandstone land forms etched by the water in the driftless area of Wisconsin. The place was eventually named Kilbourn City after its founder, a land surveyor named Byron Kilbourn. Photographer H.H. Bennett was so inspired by this landscape on the Wisconsin River, that he began making photographic views to sell at the new railroad stations to entice people to visit. He invented an instantaneous shutter to capture his son jumping from the cliff to stand rock and sold Ho Chunk artifacts from his studio. So successful was his venture making postcards and 3-D stereoscope cards that Kilbourn City became a bustling destination. The town name changed to Wisconsin Dells in 1931 to more clearly identify it in the public mind with the landscape. Decades later, "the Dells" reinvented itself as "the water park capital of the world." Its theme parks often overwhelming the senses to such a degree that visitors can miss the landscape that started it all.

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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.