Shoreham Repository (2023- ) is an experimental artist project and living archive focused on the scrappy buffers of trees and grass that surround Shoreham Yards, a train and truck facility in Northeast Minneapolis. Connecting global extraction and consumption networks Shoreham’s margins act as physical and theoretical frames for exploring complex biological systems, human impacts and convivial play. The archive contains items that reflect upon this place, or were collected along its edges, since 2018. Exhibition ephemera, corporate reports, species surveys, maps, illustrations, artworks, plant pressings, found rocks, seed pods, railroad debris, are all included in the Repository, as are books that inspired the project, personal notes and observations, and a Dakota language poem and short experimental film produced by three collaborators: Liz Cates, Gloria, and Stefon Leron Alexander. Results from on-going social practice experiments and data collection continue to be added over time. Some documents, artworks and writings were created/collected by Miranda Trimmier, Dave Zumeta, Stuart McLean, Elizabeth Workman, Leslie Grant, Hallie Bahn, Jeffrey Skemp, Janet Lobberecht, Greg Feinberg, Chad Giblin, Kathryn Savage, Jessica Rossi Mastracci, Alicia Johnson, Xiating Chen and others.
The archive statement is here, the key here, Elizabeth Workman wrote about it here. This grant report by Jessica Rossi-Mastracci is included in Shoreham Repository.
Each box contains found objects from Shoreham’s four buffers. Envelops include handwritten personal reflections written on the backs of 100 snapshots of the area.
Pressed “invasive” species picked on the northern edge of the yards document a changing landscape. Images from railroad labor history and land use were selected by Leslie Grant. Color swatches and a painting were created by Janet Lobberecht using some ink she made from found railroad debris.
Photographs of animal holes found along the edges of Shoreham document other-than-human placemaking. Publicly available pollution mitigation records describe past and present toxicities in bureaucratic terms.
(clockwise from top) Photographs by Jeffery Skemp, birding notes by Dave Zumeta and me, snapshots with personal observations, 1870s pre-railroad bird observations by T.S. Roberts, books that inspired my thinking, underpants from citizen science soil test experiment (more below), and plant, insect and bird surveys.
Team Underpants (2022) was a citizen-science soil health experiment performed in three of Shoreham’s surrounding buffers. Friends, colleagues, and community members helped bury then exhume almost 100 pairs of underpants. The degraded outcome of this process roughly visualizes the existence and activity level of naturally occurring soil bacteria, fungi and nematodes. Solar exposure greatly increases the rate at which decomposition occurs.
This Smelling Committee (2023- ) was inspired by a tradition where US municipalities asked professional and amateur "sanitarians" to document areas pertaining to the health of a community during the Industrial Era. These groups were called many things, including Smelling Committees. They created a living description of the olfactory ephemera produced by rendering plants, factories, and other industrial sites. This contemporary version asked participants to take a 2.5 hour walk around the train yard buffers. They were mailed a badge, map, invitation letter, fact sheet, and Smelling Request Form to fill out about emotional, nervous system and olfactory experiences. Some people walked in groups, others alone. All experienced the complexity of a place that is both polluted, harsh and industrial, but at points calm, beautiful and rich in diversity. Elisabeth Workman reported on it here.
On February 13th, 2024, I sent out an email for people to come to my studio and make Fertility Balls. Participants used various organic ingredients to produce testicle and egg-like things as gifts to Mother Nature and the Soo-Line Dump, a 140 year old mitigated dumpsite on the edge of Shoreham Yards,. The handmade eggs and testicles were stuffed with items such as rich dirt, seeds, hair, dried flowers, egg shells, as well as hopes, dreams and well wishes. The balls were collectively and ceremoniously launched into the Dump during a communal rite of spring. I documented the creations in book form (on the left).
Shoreham Repository lives at the James K. Hosmer Special Collections Department of the Hennepin County Central Library. Open house events encourage exploring the archive collectively. In these images library regulars, Special Collections patrons, artists, environmental engineers and Shoreham Yards neighbors visit the Northeast Minneapolis Public Library for an organized viewing in spring of 2026.