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In 1998 Robert Stackhouse created a large wood sculpture on the lawn in front of Navy pier. Angel Way was 64 feet long and 17 feet high. It must have weighed over 10,000 pounds. On the night of July 3rd, 1998 there was a huge rain and windstorm that blew through downtown Chicago. Incredibly it blew Angel Way over.
On the morning of the 4th of July 1998 (keep in mind that this was a holiday) 5 chain-saw wielding City of Chicago workers were cutting Angel Way into little pieces and carting it away.
That "windfall" was emotionally difficult for Robert Stackhouse and this exhibit at Klein Art Works is his response to that experience.
Of the dozens of major outdoor Stackhouse sculptures that have been created, none has ever been destroyed in one fell swoop or for that matter by nature at all.
To a large extent Stackhouse's oeuvre is about memory; our memories of safe, warm beckoning places. The contradiction that a safe, warm, beckoning places was itself destroyed is relevant here.
More specifically, Resurgent is about primal form and experience wrought in contemporary material. Central to the piece is the juxtaposition of aluminum and stone, the stark contrast of material, texture, and context. The foundation of the sculpture is built of post-rock; a fossil rich limestone that once formed the seabed of the mid-continent. The name derives from its use as fence posts that long divided the ranges of Western Kansas. The 5 tons of post-rock give Resurgent a weighty presence that will certainly prevent it from blowing over.
Stackhouse's dramatic structures are meant to be experienced from inside, passing through and looking out. They are as much about the interplay of light and shadow as they are about spatial ambiguity and enclosure. His intricate sculptures suggest boats, vessels, and safe beckoning places.
In his paintings, Stackhouse recreates, builds upon, and extends his structural projects. He notes that his paintings never give a straightforward representation of a sculpture, but seek to convey the sense of scale and an actual experience of the space created. His watercolors are highly gestural and have richly textured surfaces that push the boundaries of the medium. In painting, the artist overcomes certain impossibilities that he meets in three dimensions.
Robert Stackhouse is among the few contemporary artists who call directly on our common stock of knowledge and our familiar feelings about enclosure and openness, about light and carpentered form and landscape. He crafts intricate, yet informal sculptures that suggest boats, vessels, and safe beckoning places. Inasmuch as these sculptures are often temporary his paintings are memory documents of their existence.
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