They’re not quite the professor and Mary Ann, but local artists Jessica Dunn and Michael Runge are stowing away on an otherwise uninhabited island this summer. The Herron School of Art and Design students recently moved into “Indianapolis Island,” which looks like a 1970s futuristic space pod floating on the lake at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
It’s probably the most intriguing — and definitely the most interactive — of the eight works in the museum’s new, $25 million “100 Acres: The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park,” which opens to the public June 20.
Years in the making, the innovative park will be one of the country’s largest. But the IMA didn’t just purchase the pieces and arbitrarily place them around the park. Artists from all over the world visited the space and the city, and then tailored their works — from “bone” benches to a fantasy basketball court — from those experiences. Featuring woodlands, wetlands and a 35-acre lake, the park is also an Eden of native Hoosier flora and fauna.
New York sculptor/installation artist Andrea Zittel created “Indianapolis Island” (which she originally titled “I-land”), a white fiberglass asymmetrical dome with a door and small porthole. Inside, it is roughly 18-by-20 feet, although the sloping of the walls inward makes it seem a bit smaller. It is here, isolated — yet accessible to thousands — that Runge and Dunn will live for two months this summer.
The two were drawn to the project after hearing Zittel speak. After mulling it over, they each had “half a proposal,” Runge said, so they combined them and got the job.
Initially, the island had only a sink with a foot pump on a small counter. Runge and Dunn have added a three-piece bed that pulls out into two benches and a table with storage beneath them, sets of shelves, a coat rack, a generator constructed from an old bicycle and a small floating garden.
There, loosely attached to the side of the island in seven cut-up blue barrels, Runge and Dunn are growing tomatoes, radishes, cucumbers and cilantro. However, since the lake occasionally connects to the White River, the vegetables may not be suitable for human consumption.
It’s a cozy space, but comfortable. The white fiberglass reflects most of the sun’s heat, and narrow slits between the floorboards allow cool air from the water’s surface to flow up into the dome.
Their project is called Give and Take. When able, Runge and Dunn will row ashore, pick up interested parties, and row them back out to the island for a visit. Once there, Runge and Dunn will have shelves of small items and bits of artwork they have made to trade. That way, the interior is constantly changing, and “Island trade” serves as “an illustration of the mark they leave on the island, and they take something away with them,” Runge said.
There runs a small danger that someone will want to trade a pencil for his iPad or glasses, but Runge is confident. “I’ll do it, but I won’t row them back to shore until they trade back,” he said.
Read about their adventures at www.ima museum.org/island, or follow them on Twitter @imaisland.
Going?
The 100 Acres grand opening is noon to 5 p.m. June 20. Special events include performances by Motus Dance Theatre on the Stratum Pier, a drumming session with JamX and throat singing by Arrington de Dionyso in the Clearing.
There also will be team-building exercises at Align, and an architecture tour with visitors pavilion designer and noted Arkansas architect Marlon Blackwell.
Blackwell’s pavilion, which looks very much a part of the forest, is based on a decaying leaf he found while wandering the grounds.
The 100 Acres will continue to evolve over time. The works of art are “impermanent,” according to Emily Lytle, IMA spokeswoman, in that once installed, they will not be maintained. As they are eventually reclaimed by the nature in the park, they will be replaced.
“New work will be introduced every year or two over the life of the park,” Lytle said. “It is our hope that nature and art will continue to grow and change the park over time.”
More information: www.imamuseum.org/100acres or www.imamuseum.org/island.
