Ford the River

Group Residency August 2013

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Cabin-Time

Cabin-Time is a roaming creative residency to remote places. For Cabin-Time: Green River, fifteen creatives traveled to Desolation Canyon, eleven miles north of Green River, Utah. They stayed on the bank of the Green River from August 25-30, 2013, and created work that explored the theme Ford the River. Cabin-Time 5: Green River residents: Carson Davis Brown, Sarah Darnell, Stephanie Dowda, Ryan Greaves, Geoff Holstad, Ben Hunter, Emily Julka, Bridget Frances Quinn, Steven Rainey, Mary Rothlisberger, Cyrus W. Smith, Charlotte X. C. Sullivan, Adam Weiler, Meg Whiteford, and Sarah Williams.

We had the pleasure of meeting the folks at Epicenter and collaborating with them to bring 15 artists to Green River to set up camp north of town in Desolation Canyon.

We love Green River. It was quite the experience to be greeted by new friends, hoot-hollerin and waving flags at our arrival. So American! Residents traveled from all over the country and everyone fell in love with the landscape and mystique that Green River and nearby canyon offered. Late summer is monsoon season and we experienced it in full force–record rainfalls made for a dangerous road, muddy river, and cloudy skies. After three wet days, we were ready for the rain to go away. By Tuesday afternoon the sky cleared and we made it back into town for a party.
With Green River being the melon capital of the United States we wanted to taste as many of them as we could. We met at Epicenter and invited the public to join us for a table filled with all the in-season melons we could get. We picked up two of each from Dunham’s Melons: cantaloupe, crenshaw, israeli, canary, honeyloupe, lampkin, honeydew, and watermelon. Cabin-Time resident Sarah Williams made a watermelon + tomato salad and quinoa salad to round out the meal. We enjoyed meeting people and being back in civilization for the evening. I, Ryan Greaves, want to apologize for missing the mayor at the event. Our timings got crossed and we were craving twist cones from Chow Hound.

Canyon life had a beautiful rhythm to it–everyone setting off in different directions to work on their projects, rambling in and out of camp for meals and hangouts throughout the day. A big part of Cabin-time is meeting new people and working collaboratively. The theme that we chose to work with for this Cabin-Time was “Ford the River.” We interpreted that in many ways, but for any journey or crossing of a difficult obstacle, you have others with you. Many individual projects involved the participation of other residents, right down to the planning and coordination of the residency itself.

We left Green River with lasting friendships and memories of time spent together. Rain storms, sun dogs, sagebrush, and swims; every best day right in a row.

Field Guide Specifications: Process: 2-color (purple and orange) risograph interiors on 9 different 70#t French Paper Co. Pop-Tone papers, 1-color cover on 100#c French Paper Co. Pop-Tone Orange Fizz paper; Wire-o binding; Pages: 72; Dimensions: 5″ x 7″; Edition Size: 150.

Cabin-Time 5 included a few past and future Epicenter collaborators: Charlotte X.C. Sullivan (Epicenter’s Frontier Fellowship Coordinator), Cyrus W. Smith (January 2014 Frontier Fellow), and Mary Rothlisberger (April 2014 Frontier Fellow). We look forward to further strengthening the connections between Cabin-Time and Epicenter. Future fun and forever beach days.

Charlotte X.C. Sullivan: Ford the River, Part Two: Wrapping a stone in silk string (again), an immobile compass built. Part Two in a series of pre-digital navigational tools. An homage to mystery, a grounding place to carry all my weight. It’ll get cut down later and spun into gold.

Cyrus W. Smith: During my time at Cabin-Time, I focused on music and songwriting. Bringing with me a travel size guitar, a baritone ukulele, and a battery powered keyboard, I produced nine new songs. The melodies and lyrics were generated on walks, around fires, and while perched on boulders high above the canyon floor on the group’s many explorations of the surrounding environment. The songs then serve as a record of my experience in the desert, as well as a portrait of our temporary home and community. On our last night at camp, I debuted the suite of songs at a “house show” we put on at the abandoned cabin next to our campsite.

Mary Rothlisberger & Charlotte XC Sullivan collage by Maria Sykes

Mary Rothlisberger: As a part of the Cabin-Time Crew, my on-site role is similar to a camp counselor– working socially with the group dynamics, domestic systems, safety, adventure, and overall fun. For the first few days, I worked with residents and crew to build creative living systems for our temporary community spaces. I sewed a large patchwork that we rigged from the trees to serve as our community studio and gathering space during our time in the canyon. I explored my physical relationship to landscape by letting place and action transform the things I brought with me. I spent the week crocheting a vanishing point and through ritual and intention, I turned it into a Forgetting Place.

Visit cabin-time.com for more information about Cabin-Time.