Kickstarter

Andrew's TEDx talk is now available online, check it out here.

We hope you've been following along on the blog. We just relaunched the website which you can find at www.rabbitisland.org. Make sure you check in there as we'll have a lot more information about the residency and everything that is happening on the island this summer.

For all you NYC-based folks there is a Rabbit Island benefit taking place on June 1st. Art, music, food, conservation... More information will be posted on the website shortly.

Also, our Kickstarter backers will be first to find out when the official residency programme application process goes online, stay tuned!

The first update for 2013! Sorry we've been out of touch for a while via Kickstarter. Hopefully you've been following along with all the Rabbit Island updates on our blog.

For example, check out this latest post about Andrew speaking at the first TEDx event to be hosted in the Keweenaw Peninsula—

We’re excited to be a part of the first ever TEDx event hosted in northern Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. The event is sponsored by Michigan Technological University this Saturday, March 23rd, between 9:30am and 7pm EDT. The theme of the event is Journeys.

Andrew Ranville, Rabbit Island’s founding Artist in Residence, will be speaking about his experience living on the island over the past two summers and how it has affected his arts practice and world view. He’ll also be talking a bit about what’s coming up for the project.

Tickets are sold out but the talks will be available live online. Andrew’s talk will be opening the event just after 9:30am EDT so make sure to log on early!

+ official roster of speakers

+ livestream link

Cheers to everyone who put the energy into organizing this event. Michigan’s Copper Country is so darn special.

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We hope you'll log on and check it out. Lot's of exciting news for this coming summer on the island. Stay tuned.

Some images from Andrew Ranville's No Island is a Man exhibition. This inaugural Rabbit Island exhibition marks the foundation of a partnership with the DeVos Art Museum who will provide future artists-in-residence opportunities to connect to the local communities and exhibit their island work and research.  Extra special thanks to our backers for getting us this far, we can't wait to show you what we have planned in the next few months and in the coming years!

The exhibition features—

Seven "shipwrecked" balloons found on the island's rocky shoreline. Andrew's essay in the catalogue talk about these elements of "civilization by proxy".

Six framed, large-scale photographs selected from a series shot on the island.

Four Polaroid photographs (two silver shade and two color).

A limited-edition, artist-made USGS-style map. (Editions are currently available at the museum, but we'll be selling them online shortly)

A large wall drawing/painting based on precise circumnavigations of the island, rendered using projections of the GPS data.

Transects, a film made from explorations through the island. The film is a HD video projection with quadraphonic sound, 12 minutes and 39 seconds, looped.

A hand-crank radio which is tuned into a FM station being broadcast throughout the museum featuring field recordings from the island.

An "endless" pile of skipping stones stamped with the Rabbit Island outline. Visitors are encouraged to take a small piece of Rabbit Island sandstone away and transpose it into another body of water.

Berg's Tower, a large sculpture installation made of 100+ year old driftwood found on the shore of the island. Based on matching spikes driven into the original logs of the old cabin some of the pieces probably came from the docks Berg (the first homesteader of Rabbit Island) had built in the 1890s to enable fishing from the island. The structure is held together only using found driftwood and natural fiber rope utilizing lashings and knots.

A comprehensive catalogue was produced for the exhibition. It contains essays by Melissa Matuscak, the director of the museum, Nadim Samman, a curator and writer, Andrew and Rob. Included with the catalogue is an edition of 5 postcards featuring photographs taken by Andrew. A short-run edition artifact kit was produced for the exhibition as well. The kit–made "in house" at the NMU Art and Design building–is made up of two laser-engraved and CNC-machined blocks of Michigan red oak sourced from the Keweenaw. It includes the catalogue and postcard set, identifier card, the map print, a USB stick featuring field recordings from the island, a forestry-certified incense-cedar pencil, and a handmade brass matchcase which includes a compass and contains strike anywhere matches. Like the aforementioned map, we'll be letting our backers know how to get a hold of these catalogues and kits soon.

Andrew's exhibition at the DeVos Art Museum in Marquette's Northern Michigan University opened last Friday evening to a great response. The next afternoon Andrew gave a talk at the university about his work and experiences on Rabbit Island which can be viewed here.

Here are a couple recent articles about the residency program and the exhibition:

"Rabbit Island becomes home to sustainable artist residency" by Kristi Evans of the Marquette Monthly.

"Rabbit Island pioneer" by Renee Prusi of the Mining Journal

A few limited-edition prints and catalogues will be available from the exhibition shortly. We'll make sure to let our Kickstarter backers have first dibs!

If you haven't been following along on our Tumblr, here are some recent highlights:

Cabin-Time #3 on Rabbit Island. A crew from Lower Michigan came to the island for an extended weekend to help beta test the residency program and make work for a show they have opening very soon in Grand Rapids, MI.

Will Holman, one of our Architecture Competition winners/finalists wrote about his trip to the island on his blog.

Finally settling back in on the mainland and going through all the documentation from this year, expect some updates very soon!