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The Island
A collaboration between Vital 5 Productions and SuttonBeresCuller
September 20 & 21, 2005

An Installation on Lake Washington

There were a thousand reasons not to build a floating desert island, launch it into Lake Washington, and anchor it the minimum 100 yards from the longest floating bridge in North America. There were another thousand reasons why John Sutton, Ben Beres and Zac Culler should not have packed up a weeks worth of food, beer and clothing- donned ripped up business suits and live on the island, marking the end of a Pacific Northwest summer. For all the reasons why this project should not have happened, there was one reason that galvanized a partnership and set the wheels in motion- it sounded like a hell of a good time.

Vital 5 and SuttonBeresCuller have long held similar ideologies about the nature of performance art, about taking art out of context, making it fun and bringing it to the people. The Evergreen Floating Bridge offered a captive audience in the tens of thousands, all commuting between Bellevue and Seattle, making the familiar journey over a two-mile stretch of deep blue lake. We wanted to give travelers a sight they would never forget. We wanted a memory we would never forget. We wanted to do it simply because we live in America, the land of freedom (right?) and remind people that you really can do just about anything you want.

Built in an old hanger at Sandpoint Naval Station, the island was constructed in less than a month, built of wood, foam and food grade plastic barrels. There were below-deck hatches to store food, beer and clothing, as well as life preservers, tiki torches and an anchor. There isn’t enough room to describe all of the mishaps, adventures and general insanity that transpired over the course of the project, but they include sixteen fire trucks, news helicopters, Seattle Harbor Patrol, rock commerce, pooping underwater, high winds and a plastic crab named, well, Crabby. Special thanks go to Steven, Caryn and Cisco, Igor Peev, Adam Weintraub, Jason Puccinelli, Matt Richter, Jed Dunkerley and all the other troublemakers that helped this project float.

Learn more about SuttonBeresCluuer and watch a video at www.suttonberesculler.com.