Mail from the Upper Peninsula
“A friend of mine told me about the island about a year ago and the project has been a popular topic of discussion since then. At first I was a little upset that someone from out of the area could get their hands on such a rare piece of real estate; the history of the U.P. is partially the history of wealthy absentee landowners, and much of our best real estate has been bought up and restricted from public use not only by individuals, but corporate interests as well (Rio Tinto being the latest threat). Still, it seems as though your group is doing something creative and respectable, so more power to you. I only hope that everyone involved stays safe, especially if they are out there by themselves. I probably don’t need to tell you, but the last mistake that many people make in the woods is confusing beauty with benevolence, and Lake Superior is one of the most beautiful places I know of.”
+ Very good advice regarding beauty vs. benevolence.
+ We agree that land use historically has been irrational from the perspective of public benefit and ecosystem integrity. The examination of this and the search for solutions is a premise of our project.
+ We couldn’t agree more with this author’s sentiment towards Rio Tinto and their Eagle Sulfide Mine located in the center of the largest roadless expanse in Michigan and may or may not have had something to do with the creation of this Twitter account.
+ Rabbit Island’s owner, Rob Gorski, has several generations of family from within 15 miles of Rabbit Island as the crow flies. An argument could still be made, however, that this is irrelevant and that it should be the responsibility of the wider community (i.e. the government, culture or “crowd”) to rationally organizing land on an ecosystem scale for the perpetual public benefit. As a society we have been quite efficient at crowdsourcing the fragmentation and degradation of once-public land for the past four hundred years. With Rabbit Island we venture that there is significant unaccounted value in the re-creation of sizable open spaces and that there is a potential market which balances the lopsided historical experience utilizing the contemporary conception of crowdsourcing.
+ Had Rio Tinto used their vast resources to create, say, a national park rather than a nickel sulfide mine in the Upper Peninsula we would have obviously supported the company with fervor. Individuals or corporations should not receive judgement based on land ownership itself (and certainly not because of where they may reside) but rather be judged on the alignment of their intentions with themes such as science, reason, justice, art, foresight, etc. The Nature Conservancy, after all, is an absentee land-owning multinational organization which has public benefit intrinsically stamped into it’s mission. Ted Turner, Roxanne Quimby and Doug Thompson further exemplify this idea as individuals as did John D. Rockefeller with the creation of Yosemite and Arcadia National Parks. The author concludes similarly in the end, of course, but the distinction is worthy of discussion.
“By the way, I made a brief stop (in the fog, wind, and rain) at Rabbit Island on May 5th. Anchored on the southern shore and walked around the island. I left almost as quickly as I came though, as the weather was quite shifty. After visiting many islands on the remote Canadian North Shore I must say that Rabbit Island is more like those islands up there than any on the South Shore.”
Marlin Ledin and his girlfriend Susan sailed 700 miles on Lake Superior over 60 days on his Seaforth 24, Voyageur. His route reads like a dream:
Apostle Islands + Keweenaw Waterway + Rabbit Island + Copper Harbor + Isle Royale + Rossport, ON + Slate Islands + Isle Royale + Grand Marais, MN + Apostle Islands. I had wanted to go to the Huron Islands and Stannard Rock Lighthouse… next time around.
We smiled when we stumbled across the claim he inscribed on Rabbit Island sandstone two months ago. Marlin has returned to land for the moment to resupply for the second leg of his voyage. If all goes well we’ll be crossing paths again in early August as he sails to more destinations east.
Stay on that boat, man.
We are gearing up for a busy summer on the island! Here is the Rabbit Island summer update blitz.
In Residence
Andrew Ranville, who recently finished climbing the seven tallest mountains of Morocco’s Western High Atlas, returns to the island for nearly two months this summer. He will be working towards his solo exhibition at the DeVos Art Museum, Northern Michigan University. No Island Is A Man, opening on the 14th of September, will be the first annual museum show devoted to artists-in-residence on the island.
We are planning to further expand exhibitions in the fall/winter as well. More on this as things unfold but project ideas have been bounced around for NYC, London, and, if we’re lucky, Berlin.
Several other artists, musicians and collaborators will be visiting the island this summer. Along with Andrew these folks will be helping “beta test” the residency program, helping inform decisions about logistics, equipping the facilities, and how we run the residency program in general. They are—
Jeremy Quentin of indie/folk project Small Houses spent five days in solitude on the island in late June wrapping up his forthcoming album. He tweaked it while camped out in the island shelter and on his last day sang through each track and called it done. He also endured a character building thunderstorm that brought the heavist 2 day rainfall ever recorded in nearby Duluth, MN, along with 45mph winds. (Eat your heart out Bon Iver).
Sara Maynard, who ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to enable her residency, will combine her visit with some long-distance swimming training–-a true arts + athletics residency. Joining us for a week later in July, we hope she’ll be the first artist to swim to the island!
Will Holman of Chicago, one of the finalists of our architecture competition will be working on various architecture projects to help improve and expand our facilities for future resident artists.
Jono Sturt and Thomas Affeldt of Detroit were also finalists in our architecture competition and will be working on a limited portion of their submission and getting a feel for the lay of the land.
Miles Mattison, an artist from California, will be leading the island sign-making efforts on the island in mid/late August.
Cabin-Time, a Michigan-based nomadic artist residency program started by Geoffrey Holstad will be coming to the island for a few days at the end of August. Six artist in total will working together on a collaborative project.
Steven Michael Holmes is the creator of Mostly Midwest, a music blog championing the Michigan music scene. Check out a video from last year recorded on the island. Steven will be bringing a few more musicians out this summer.
Architect partners Eleni Petaloti and Leonidas Trampoukis will be coming for a few days to design and construct a community table for the island.
The table will be used for a wild foods dinner we are planning at the end of July. Kelly Geary, a Brooklyn-based chef, and some of her chef friends from the Underground Food Collective in Madison, Wisconsin will be preparing this using locally sourced produce, fish, berries and other provisions from the island and nearby farms.
In a similar vein chef TJ Girard of New York and several supporters of our project from around the country have submitted recipes for our island cookbook. (“Julia Goes Camping: Trout Meuniere” is a fun one). We will be experimenting with these on the island and are still accepting recipe submissions.
Marlin Ledin of Small Boat Voyager will be sailing from Wisconsin waters to meet up with us in early August. Since spring he has been solo on a sailboat across the Canadian northshore documenting the lake and it’s surroundings through music, field recordings, and writing.
The folks at Kill Devil Hill in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, have been comissioned to stitch together a Rabbit Island flag which is currently in progress. When finished it will look similar to this.
With their feedback and support we will be ready to officially establish the residency program this Autumn/Winter, opening it to artists and researchers worldwide.
Support
This year we’ve received some wonderful product donations from several small, independent companies who have a spirit similar to the Rabbit Island project. We’ll be sure to let you know a little bit more about them as we land on the island and organize main camp.
A year on and we are still getting regular emails from people all over the world, interested in supporting the project in one way or another. Some people want to donate further funds, old camp equipment, books and more. Some send simple notes of encouragement. All have been gratefully received. If you are interesting in supporting the project personally do get in touch! support@rabbit-island.org
Have some old books that would find a good home in the Rabbit Island library? We’d be happy to receive them. Check out this blog post for more on book donations.
Have some old tools or camping or kitchen equipment laying about? Check out this post for our “reverse garage sale” wants and needs.
We are looking forward to a great summer on the island, and we’ll make sure to send some updates now and again. We’ll even post some images and videos when we have internet access on our few mainland visits.
