The 2005 Duluth Art Institute Riot
Academic and Critical Excerpts, collated and footnoted by the Richardson brothers (Jim and Allen Richardson)
Academic and Critical Excerpts, collated and footnoted by the Richardson brothers (Jim and Allen Richardson)
This post could also be called “Bigfoot and Us.”
Starting in 1998, my brother Allen and I wrote a “weird science” column called “Gonzo Science” for the alternative Duluth newsweekly Ripsaw.
Presented in order from my Instagram account @lakesuperioraquaman. These chronicle the freezing over and thawing out of the harbor, from 12/31 to 2/7. Each picture was taken from out behind Vikre Distillery after one Salty Dog.
Model: Cam Rose. Mask by Jill Holmen. Photos taken at the Embassy, the art church at 2701 W. Third St., the new home of Embassy 35 (the pop-up at the Catalyst fest last fall). Watch for events there soon.
This Duluth Canal Cam screenshot viewed in Austin, Texas suggests a worldwide performance staged here is not only possible, but desirable
1.) The Duluth Canal Cam Dancers and Marching Band. This is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 29, at 4:30 p.m.
The comic book fan site interview
WDIO covered the event which happened on the solstice, Dec. 21. Thanks to all. #snowfortcity has suffered from the recent rains etc but all great cities have been destroyed at least once.
Thank you, distinguished citizens, for conferring upon me this office of Snow-Fort City Mayor. It is no small honor to assume my half-imaginary duties in this pop-up, collaborative, city-planning art fantasy at the edge of Lake Superior. “City” is an aspirational term for this arrangement of snow walls and monuments in Duluth’s Leif Erickson Park. Snow-Fort City’s true location lies somewhere within our skulls — like all cities. My Facebook post initiating construction was shared more than a hundred times in just a few hours, and it attracted the Duluth News-Tribune and KBJR-6/CBS-3, which tells me the vision of the snow-fort city is the real object. Almost none of the post-sharers, newspaper readers, or TV viewers made it down to the actual Snow-Fort City. They are content to view it with their eyes closed, in its most pure form: the Platonic one.
It literally came to me in a vision, like the origin of so many great cities. In a way, like Duluth itself. I remember the words of George Nettleton’s wife from 1856, when her husband’s mind swam with dreams of Duluth-as-future-city: “I thought he had a pretty long head to see that there was going to be a city here sometime when there was then nothing” (Duluth: An Illustrated History of the Zenith City by Glenn N. Sandvik).
#snowfortcity day 7. Leif Erikson Park. Best day yet and perhaps even the last. The weather’s turning subzero for a while but we had this one last great day of wet, buildable snow to top things off.
#snowfortcity day 6. Leif Erikson Park. The fort of the tree people is the most durable and impressive structure so far. Albeit unfinished, the vision and craft of its architects (principally Morgan Pirsig) is impressive.
#snowfortcity day 4. Come at me, bro. Found lots of damage this afternoon as I rolled up, so, much of the day was spent in repair mode.
#snowfortcity Day 3: it’s a thing now. There are 7 nodes of activity in various stages of completion, but we have successfully transformed Leif Erikson Park.
It was a great day to build a #snowfortcity with volunteers Stephen Bockhold, Sean MacManus, and others including an unnamed mom with two kids in tow who attested she was a #peoplesfreeskate participant last winter. One of the kids she was with, who I’ve never seen before, called me “Aquaman” unprompted on camera while KBJR-6/CBS-3 was filming: hope that makes the final cut.
