The Wisconsin Project: Mall

5.1.14

Found: Woolworth, Brookfield, WI

Found: Woolworth, at Brookfield Square, Brookfield, Wisconsin. Copyright The L.L. Cook Co.
from an Ektachrome Transparency. Postmarked December 22, 1969.
Written on verso in ballpoint pen and addressed to Tampa, Florida:
"Hello Marie. This is from the Brookfield Square.
This is some shopping center.
One of the largest and finest. Parking space for 10,000 cars.
The weather here was at 8 above this morning.
Now it is 24 above. Best regards and have fun."

Oblivious to the forces of nature, the suburban shopper of the late 1960s could browse the mall in climate-controlled comfort once the car was parked outside in the lot. Fully enclosed expansive shopping malls seem quaintly historic in the age of Target and Amazon. But you wouldn't think so by looking at survivor mall websites like the one for Brookfield Square, which first opened in 1967. Avoiding the topic of "history", Brookfield Square has been re-envisioned for the 21st century as a bright and airy social spot with world food and trendy clothes. Still, traditional Sears and JC Penney serve as anchor stores rather than the defunct Woolworth's with its abundant ficus plants as shown on this postcard. The Woolworth's store at the Mid-Cities Mall (opened in 1968) in our home town of Manitowoc, WI was a hot spot and frequent destination when we were teenagers. Woolworth's sold records, magazines, parakeets, house plants, lip gloss, colorful tights, and had a restaurant that served grilled hot dogs and a particularly fluffy lemony cheese cake within its walnut Formica paneled interior.

23.12.12

Found: Mayfair Shopping Center, Wauwatosa, WI

Found: Gimbels, the South Mall at Mayfair, Hiway 100 at North Ave., Waustosa 13, Wisconsin
copyright the L.L. Cook Co. from an Ektachrome Transparency, 1959, 1961.

Found: Marshall Field and Company, the North Mall at Mayfair Shopping Center,
Route 100 at North Ave., Waustosa 13, Wisconsin copyright the L.L. Cook Co.
from a Natural Color Transparency, 1959 postmarked May 1968.

Found:Office Building at Mayfair Shopping Center, Hiway 100 at North Ave., Waustosa 13, Wisconsi
copyright the L.L. Cook Co. from an Ektachrome Transparency, 1963.

Anyone searching for consumer utopia unlike the old downtown streets of Wisconsin circa early 20th century? Three views of Mayfair circa 1959 when it was a shopping center--recently opened with 70 stores (Gimbels and Marshall Field and Company were the original "anchors") and not a mall like today with a blog--show a clean, tree-filled, uncongested, wide-open pedestrian space for shopping. Photographer Brian Ulrich has examined the demise and/or evolution of such places in the 21st century in his most excellent book: Is This Place Great or What (Aperture, 2011).

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.