Artists Colonize Bumpkin Island THIS WEEKEND

The Berwick Research Institute and Studio Soto, in partnership with the Boston Harbor Island Alliance and the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), invites the public, free of charge, to view and participate in a unique art experiment in the Boston Harbor Islands national park area this weekend.

SATURDAY, AUG. 30, 10am - 4:30pm: Works-in-progress day
SUNDAY, AUG. 31 - MONDAY, SEPT. 1, 10am - 4:30pm: Public viewing days

Using the metaphor of homesteading as a point of departure, 40 artists in ten groups will embark on new artistic and geographic terrain. With only the materials they can carry on their backs and a short 5-day window of time, the artists will adapt ambitious projects to the challenges and opportunities of an island environment.

Part residency, part survivalist experiment, and fully impressionable, malleable, speculative and reflective, the Encampment allows artists to explore new possibilities, removed from the distractions and discourses of the mainland. Yet, like an explorer with a partially drawn map to be fully formed in expedition, the project presents itself as a microcosm of transparent, possible attributes and actions for a culture stripped bare and invented anew.
Join the experiment. ARTISTS AND PROJECTS INCLUDE:

Astrodime Transit Authority - Bebe Beard, John Gayle, Ali Horeanopoulos, Mary Ann Kearns and Sam Smiley – Using tin can phones and a dose of entrepreneurial moxie, the Astrodime Transit Authority will use strategically placed high-tech tin can phones to enable intra-island communication. At low tide, President Buchanan and Queen Victoria will be on hand to commemorate the 150th year of the first attempt to lay the Transatlantic Cable with Bumpkin Island’s very first mainland-island communications system.

The Camoufleurs -Hanna Rose Shell and Dan Hisel - Drawing on artisanal weaving techniques, military concealment strategies, and bird nesting practices, the camoufleurs will transform their land, and its particular human and natural ecology, into a camouflaged homestead environment. Then creating mixed-media concealment cloaks, they will navigate the island, seen and unseen.

Leave one for your ancestors, one for your children, and take one -Tiffany Dumont, Else Eaton, Raymond Garrett, Rory Jackson – Artists will forage island materials to create three interactive,
multimedia installations based on past, present and future, based on the old harvester’s adage “leave one for your ancestors, one for your children, and take one.” Artists will encourage visitors to add to the pieces, forage responsibly, and participate in performance.

New England Expeditionary Alliance – Dedalus Wainwright, Bryan Long, Michael D. Andelman and Jeff Cleary – Through a scientific mission that will map Bumpkin’s metaphorical, literal, and sensual parameters, Alliance members will lead expeditions, generate hypotheses, establish a
classification system, create analysis, and give creative daily public lectures on their findings.

Shore Wind Organ - Jason Sanford – Using handmade wooden organ pipes and whistles, the artist will create a responsive musical instrument activated by island winds and visitor interaction.

The Honorable Bumpkin Island Company – Jack McGrath & Jane Van Cleef - Armed with a charter granting them the right to establish a trading post on Bumpkin, HBIC will purvey vital, excellent goods to homesteaders and visitors, bolstering the new island economy, creating a new currency exchange, and exploring the practice of shopping.

Survival Kit -Gabe Moylan & Rachel Roberts – Using only the UNICEF survival kit provided to international earthquake and hurricane victims, artists will supplement food rations with wild edibles, create a shelter, recreate family photos with found objects, and explore the more spiritual things lost through large-scale natural disasters.

Spirits in the House: Then & Now-Sharon Haggins Dunn - Using natural materials such as sand and mud, the artist will create a pinhole camera, which will illustrate change and continuity of natural and human forces over time.

Stone House, Urban City - Wenxiong Lin, Lynn Lee, Jens Stenger, Annie Wilker - Juxtaposing two themes of time (history and modernity; reality and romanticism), the artists will create a model urban city in the stone farmhouse ruins, and frame windows of the naval mess hall ruins with brightly colored curtains.  

Tactilist Theatre - Erik Conrad – Arranging island objects arranged according to tactile values and narratives, the artist, in the role of baroque showman, will set up a sideshow-style tent to perform "poems told by touch."
SPECIAL EVENTS
On Sunday and Monday at 12:30pm, visitors are invited to bring their packed lunches to MEET ME AT THE BLANKET, a participatory potluck for curators, artists and island newcomers to meet and discuss utopia, dystopia and the nature of public art on an island within sight of the Boston skyline.
HOW DO I GET THERE?
From Boston Long Wharf (next to the Marriott, adjacent to Christopher Columbus Park)
- Take ferry to George’s Island and transfer to the Southern Loop Inter-Island shuttle
- Departs Long Wharf every hour, on the hour, starting at 9:00 am.
- Inter-Island Shuttle from George’s to Bumpkin departs 10:30, 1:10 – overnight campers may take the 3:50 boat.
- Inter-Island Shuttle from Bumpkin to Georges departs 12:15, 1:45, 2:55, 4:25, 5:35
- Return boats from George’s Island to Long Wharf leave every hour on the half hour, last boat is at 5:30

From Quincy, Fore River Shipyard
- Take ferry to George’s Island and transfer to the Southern Loop Inter-Island shuttle
- Departs Quincy Monday – Friday 9:10, 11:15, overnight campers may take the 1:10 or 1:45 boats; Saturday - Sunday 9:20, 9:50, 11:00, 11:30, overnight campers may take the 1:20, 2:05, or 3:15 boats.
- Inter-Island Shuttle from George’s to Bumpkin departs 10:30, 1:10 – overnight campers may take the 3:50 boat.
- Inter-Island Shuttle from Bumpkin to Georges departs 12:15, 2:55, 4:25, 5:35
- Return boats from George’s Island to Quincy depart Monday – Friday 9:35, 11:40, 2:20 or 2:55; Saturday – Sunday 9:45, 10:15, 11:25, 12:55, 2:45, 3:25, 4:40, 5:15, 6:10

From Hingham Shipyard
- Boat goes directly to Bumpkin
- Departures at 9:00am, 11:40am, 2:20pm, overnight campers may take the 5:00pm boat
- Return boats are at 11:05am, 1:45pm or 4:25pm
- Boats also run to Hingham from Rowes Wharf, which is accessible by MBTA subway.

From Hull, Pemberton Point
- Boat goes directly to Bumpkin
- Departures at 9:55am, 12:35am, overnight campers may take the 4:05pm boat
- Return boats are at 12:15am or 2:55pm

Admission to the park is FREE. Ferry fares: Adult $14.00, Senior (65+) $10.00, Children (3-11) $8.00, Children under 3 free, Family 4-Pack $42.00. Inter-Island Shuttle is $3.00. For more information and for ferry schedules see www.harborexpress.com.

The 2008 Bumpkin Island Art Encampment is presented by the Boston Harbor Island Alliance, a non-profit in support of the Boston Harbor Islands; the Special Projects Incubator of the Berwick Research Institute, a non-profit which provides alternative programming and exhibition space for artists who work outside the commercial world and is funded by the LEF foundation; and Studio Soto, an artist-run performance/screening/exhibit space for ideas in Fort Point; and the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. 

The Bumpkin Island Art Encampment is curated by Megan Dickerson, Carolyn Lewenberg and Jed Speare.