Rattlesnake Island

SYNOPSIS

Okanogan Lake has became a contentious site, in regards to Eddie Haymour’s thwarted ownership of the island and his dream of turning the island into a cross-culture amusement park. In his proposed development, Haymour had planned to build a pyramid, a giant camel to dispense ice cream, a pagoda, a mini-golf course, as well as providing entertainment and Middle Eastern food. Four passenger ferries would transport tourists to the island. It is well documented that the Provincial government conspired to keep Haymour from developing the island and that they eventually appropriated the land. Haymor’s incarceration for issuing threats, his stay in Riverview mental hospital and his engineering of the take over of the Canadian embassy in Lebanon led to a final Supreme Court decision in 1976 where he was financially compensated and apologies were made. Although the Supreme Court decision cited six provincial ministries guilty of conspiracy and illegal actions, no charges were ever laid against the provincial government. Later, Haymour built a Middle Eastern themed restaurant/hotel (Castle Haymour) beside Highway 97 and directly across the lake from Rattlesnake Island. The restaurant was later sold and the statue of Haymour pointing an accusing finger in the direction of Rattlesnake Island has been removed.

As part of my exhibit, my video was projected in a small gallery at the Kelowna Art Gallery and had a run time of seventeen-minutes looped. The film was of a documentary style that occasionally shifted into a “mockcumentary” style depicting a search for the Ogopogo by a solitary individual. Using an ill equipped vessel, a one-person kayak, “The Ocean Wave”, the film documented my exploration of Rattlesnake Island and the surrounding landscape. This piece made reference to Bas Jan Ader’s famous conceptual work, “In Search of the Miraculous”. Ader disappeared at sea in 1975 while attempting to sail from the east coast of the United States to Europe in his sailboat, The Ocean Wave. The film that I created mirrored Ader’s theme of the romantic quest for the sublime through isolated nomadism. Hans Langergraber (my alter ego) fulfilled the role of the romantic tragic hero through the guise of a “Survivor Man”, sacrificing himself to achieve the sublime. Unlike Ader, he never quite experienced the this. He lived in a cave (effaced with graffiti) on the side of a highway, and the “natural” environments that he explored showed traces of a resource-based industry (log booms). After an arduous journey he finally arrived on Rattlesnake Island. The tranquility was interrupted with the arrival of a helicopter.

PRESS

Legends of the Lake – Portia Priegert, Galleries West, Fall 2010.