Bumpkin Island Art Encampment

Submitted by megan on Mon, 04/06/2009 - 18:16

All photos by Patrick Johnson (www.journeymanstudios.com)

WHAT HAPPEN(ED) WHEN ARTISTS ANNEX(ED) AN ISLAND?

From Thursday, July 30, 2009 to Monday, August 3, 2009, eight artist groups each took ownership of one plot of land on Bumpkin Island.

As "homesteaders," they:

Built some kind of "home" on the land,
Lived on the land for five days, and
Improved the land via a site-specific temporary project, performance or installation

2009 Project Proposals, Artists, & Documentation

All documentaries directed and produced by Patrick Johnson.

Ebb and Flow, Kate Dodd
Twice a day, half of Bumpkin disappears with the tides. Kate Dodd will use colorful surveyors' tape and found materials to highlight the island's dramatically changing boundaries and draw provocative parallels to the island's shifting social and human terrain during five days of homesteading.

Bumpkin 06 - Ebb and Flow from Patrick Johnson on Vimeo.

Empty - Full, Hannah Burr
Hannah Burr will create an empty, open, rubberized shelter that represents the exact volume of all her possessions, from vehicle to spring-form cake pan. Through a "stuffless" physical manifestation of all we leave behind, Burr's ghost form and accompanying performances will grapple with place, comfort, and the impermanence of worldly goods.

Bumpkin 03 - Empty Full from Patrick Johnson on Vimeo.

Everything Arrives, Everything Departs, Heather Kapplow
In collaboration with other tested, devoted visionaries, Heather Kapplow will cultivate a temporary sect focused on improving the quality of psychic life on Bumpkin Island. Each sectarian's mission (to gain increased knowledge of their true purpose on Bumpkin so that they may properly serve even the least discernable participants in this year's homesteading community) will be accomplished through the performance of ritual acts; the making and wielding of ritual objects and narratives; and through recruitment of new members.

Bumpkin 08 - Everything Arrives, Everything Departs from Patrick Johnson on Vimeo.

The Midden Map, Mark Davis and Kalmia Strong
The Midden Map engages with Bumpkin's biography and the creative transmigration of trash. A topographic model of the island, composed of recycled refuse, will materially record the 2009 Encampment while illuminating Bumpkin's geological and architectural past.

Bumpkin 07 - Midden Map from Patrick Johnson on Vimeo.

42° 16' 52.00" N 70° 53' 15.4" W, Stephanie Cardon, Courtney Lockemer, Marc McNulty
A.R.R.G.H. (Artists for Research, Reconnaissance and General Hijinks) will engage in five days of sculptural and performative piracy on Bumpkin Island. By blurring the line between originator and artist, the pirate-provocateurs explore the benefits of protecting one's creations versus making open-source artwork.

Bumpkin 05 - A.R.R.G.H from Patrick Johnson on Vimeo.

Dragonflies and Angelwings, Sharon Dunn, David Tamés, Alice Apley
Created as homage to the children of the Burrage Hospital, three- to five-foot tall, brightly-colored, winged dragonfly drones that will fly over the vicinity of the island, illuminated at night. During the day, images of the night's events will replay on a solar-powered screen as evidence of energy, time-shifting, and traces.

Bumpkin 04 - Dragonflies and Angelwings from Patrick Johnson on Vimeo.

Bumpkin Island Gamelan, Brendon Wood, Raymond Garrett, William Conley
Drawing from the Indonesian tradition of the gamelan, a percussive ensemble built and tuned to stay in one place, composer Brendon Wood and artist Raymond Garrett will construct ten to fifteen instruments from materials found on the island. In process, all designs and concepts for the instruments will be determined by the available materials. During public visitation, visitors and artists will form a gamelan ensemble to perform a specially written composition twice each day.

Bumpkin 02 - Gamelan from Patrick Johnson on Vimeo.

Orchitecture, N51/N52 (Gabriel Cira, William McKenna and James Sannino)
Nourished by a physical and conceptual diet of apples, N51/N52 will build and disperse up to a dozen cairns that will chaperone a new genetic crossing of native apples and introduced species. By approaching hybridization as a both scientific and spiritual endeavor, the scientists of Orchitecture will use their bodies, pataphysical methods and the natural features of Bumpkin to transform the island's future.

Bumpkin 01 - Orchitecture from Patrick Johnson on Vimeo.

A Brief History of Bumpkin

Native Americans used Bumpkin Island as a fish camp prior to European contact. During the colonial period, tenant farmers leased the island. In the early 19th century, the island hosted a fish-drying operation, and in the early 20th century, a fish smelting operation. In 1900, a Boston philanthropist named Clarence Burrage founded a hospital for children with physical disabilities on the island. During World War I, the island was taken over for use as a United States Naval training camp, which hosted thousands of soldiers before they were shipped to Europe to fight. The Burrage hospital briefly reopened in 1940 for polio patients but closed during World War II and burned in 1945.

Today, plants have reclaimed the physical landscape of the island. About half are non-native species, including various fruits and berries, shrubs, vines, field plants and trees. Wildflowers grow along the trails that lead visitors to the ruins of the children's hospital and a stone farmhouse. The island is 35-acres, with slate and shell beaches and open fields.

About Homesteading as a Context

In 1862, the United States recruited civilians to aid its movement west. The Homestead Act offered any U.S. citizen, including people of color and women, free or low-cost 160-acre plots of land. In return, "homesteaders" promised to build a 12' x 14' house, cultivate and "improve" the land, and live on the plot for five years. The project resulted in the creation of over 372,000 farms west of the Mississippi, continuing as late as 1976, when the Homestead Act was officially dissolved.

Curators and Partner Organizations

The Bumpkin Island Art Encampment is curated by Megan Dickerson, Carolyn Lewenberg and Jed Speare. The 2008 Art Encampment was one of two projects supported by the Berwick Research Institute's Special Projects Incubator program. This event is co-presented by Studio Soto, an artist performance/screening/exhibit space in Fort Point and the Island Alliance, a non-profit in support of the Boston Harbor Islands.

Project Fellows

Documentary filmmaker Patrick Johnson (www.journeymanstudios.com) joined the artists for the duration of the project, documenting their art and experiences for the five days on Bumpkin Island.

Multimedia artist Ali Reid became Bumpkin's official "postmistress," facilitating communication among artists, curators and visitors by delivering messages written on official Bumpkin Island correspondence stock. Through her role as official go-between, Ali became privy to island news and gossip, and generated a temporary informational exhibit that highlighted the "bumpkineering" experience as it happened.

Bumpkin 09 - Postmaster from Patrick Johnson on Vimeo.

Artist and chef Sarah King McKeon designed a welcome dinner for the eight artist groups, interpreting ideas of homemaking and welcome on the first night of homesteading.

For more information or press inquiries, contact megan@berwickinstitute.org.

Bumpkin "Traces" Exhibit October 16 - 31

The 2009 Bumpkin Island artists, curators and project fellows created a public exhibition of the 2009 findings. The exhibit, which ran from October 16 - 31 at Studio Soto's Channel Center location at Thompson Design Group, was a highlight of the 2009 Fort Point Open Studios.