Robert Stackhouse (American, born 1942)

Robert Stackhouse, born in 1942, created St. Louie Bones in 1987 as a seventy-foot-long, thirteen-foot-wide wooden structure that follows the contours of an uneven slope in Laumeier's Way Field, creating a rippling silhouette on the landscape. Conceptually shaped by the presence of two powerful waterways, it carries many historical associations. Though it resembles a boat turned into a minimalist sculpture, it also evokes a stage for primitive ritual. Its form, like a rickety raft boat, recalls people who have lived by and traveled the river, from native tribes in canoes and European immigrants arriving in steamboats to river pilots who keep the local economy flowing. Like a ship tipping into a wave, it links idea and form in a visual metaphor for a literal, imaginary, or spiritual voyage.

Sunset Hills, Missouri · United States