Immersion from the Observation Deck
The era of the Anthropocene encompasses myriad examples of control exerted upon landscapes from a distance. As well as a panoramic view of the Mississippi River churning beneath it, the observation deck at the Visitor Center of St. Anthony offers a vantage point of such measures—at a remove. As Regan Golden for Temporary continent. reflects, the site is also an apt space for thinking about one’s relationship with—and detachment from—the surrounding landscape.
River Construct, no. 4 Photograph by Regan Golden
As the sky shifts from pale blue to a hazy pink, I climb four flights of stairs from the banks of the Mississippi River to an observation deck high above St. Anthony Falls.
Up here, everyone stands close to the metal railing at the edge of the viewing platform as mist rises up from the falls, wetting our faces and forming droplets in our hair. The observation deck sits somewhere within the very heart of the city and also just outside of it; at the very center of the Mississippi River and somehow also adjacent to it. The deck provides a 360-degree view of the city that lines the banks of the river, yet stepping out onto that platform I had never felt more removed from this place.
This privileged viewpoint looking out at the landscape only made me want to hurry down to the river bank and plunge my hands into the cold, slightly muddy, gushing water.
Area for Observation Photograph by Regan Golden View over Owámniyomni (St. Anthony Falls), no. 1 Photograph by Regan Golden View over Owámniyomni (St. Anthony Falls), no. 2 Photograph by Regan Golden
Like all scenic overlooks, the observation deck enables the viewers to project themselves into the landscape, in this case making them feel as though they are suspended over the torrent of water that makes this falls so incredible. At the same time, however, the viewer remains safely detached; the only water that reaches the platform is a light mist. It is this adjacency, this just-outside-looking-in vantage point that the overlook provides which I find so deeply suspicious. It says a lot about our city that this vantage point exists in the first place—it openly reveals the desire to control the Mississippi River and keep all its strength and force at a safe distance.
The observation deck also marks a pivotal space: the platform is located at this exact spot with this tremendous view because the Mississippi River is the center of this place. It is the spark that sets every story and every life in motion here.
The falls is a center for all cultures that live in and occupy this place. As artist Andrea Carlson pointed out during her talk on the observation deck, this isn’t just St. Anthony Falls Visitor Center, this isn’t even Field Station 1—this is the home of the Dakota, this is a sacred place. Owámniyomni is an important place for the Dakota people and has been for thousands of years (see Mona M. Smith’s Owámniyomni, a Dakota Name for St. Anthony Falls). It is only in recent history that this falls also marked the birthplace of the city of Minneapolis. The Mississippi is our center and the well being of all who live here is dependent upon that realization. Over the last hundred and fifty years, at least three different coverings have been put over the falls to prevent erosion. The current “concrete apron” is just the latest attempt to protect the underlying Sandstone Rock from washing away by the force of the water.
View over Owámniyomni (St. Anthony Falls), no. 3 Photograph by Regan Golden View over Owámniyomni (St. Anthony Falls), no. 4 Photograph by Regan Golden View into the lock and dam from the observation deck, no. 1 Photograph by Regan Golden
As the sky grows dark and the city lights cast ribbons of electric blue, brilliant yellow, and hot pink light onto the waves below, I descend from the observation deck feeling as though I am just returning home to a place I once knew. The next day I find the antidote to my detachment through my artistic practice. With both hands into Mississippi River, I collect water from above and below the falls in which to immerse my view from the observation deck at last. The result is my River Construct series.
In the Visitor Center, a digital map of the floodplain of the Mississippi was projected on the wall making visible the reaches of this artery. To create the works in the series, I cut up and reconstructed the view from the observation deck while floating my images in water collected from (and returned to) the great being, the great center: the Mississippi River.
The photographs in the River Constructs series are made with plastic, river water, cut-up photographs, sandstone, and several important Minnesota plants: Omakakiibag, also known as jewelweed, spotted-touch-me-not, Impatiens capensis; Miskwaabiimizh, also known as red-osier dogwood, bend-and-stay-plant, Cornus sericea; and Zhoipai also known as Joe Pye Weed, Eutrochium maculatum.
Translations by Mary Siisip Geniusz and Wendy Siisip Geniusz, as taken from Plants Have So Much to Give Us All We Have to Do is Ask: Anishinaabe Botanical Teachings, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press), 2015.
