OUR FELLOW RESIDENTS

Our Fellow Residents is a participatory public art project that Gilian Rappaport designed for the Jantzen Beach RV Park and Mobile Home community on Hayden Island, Oregon through PARK Arts AIR (Artist-in-Residence), founded by park resident Shelbie Loomis. The installation, which took place July 30, 2022, consists of physical components that reflect aging community experience, park resident identity, and Pacific Northwest riverbank ecosystems. The artwork includes a series of paper lanterns with distinct designs made from wild foraged plants gathered on-site, a type of preservation that honors the seasonal summer blooms, colors, and shapes of the park. The lanterns were installed on the Columbia River, on the railing of a resident’s deck where community members gathered to watch the sunset and regularly assemble on a daily basis. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, the aging community has fallen victim to loneliness in Oregon and nationwide. Rather than living in isolation, seniors at Hayden Island RV Park have sought solace by congregating with peers for lunch and potluck meals, bingo, and viewing the light change over the river together. Designed for this park in a predominantly aging community, Gilian’s goal in this public art project was to bring healing to the aging communities that have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic both economically and emotionally through offering reconnection to the natural world and community art making.

Located on an island underserved by parks - with only one public park, which is approximately one acre in size despite approximately 2,155 permanent residents, rising by 5,000 boat owners moored at the island in the summer - Hayden Island RV park provides residents with spaces to protect and enhance natural resource lands and allow for public recreation areas. Our Fellow Residents aimed to promote intergenerational and interspecies dialogue and communications between residents and local flora, while bringing a contemporary social artistic practice that often evades the underserved elder community.