Robert Stackhouse, St. Louie Bones, 1987

pine timbers, white stain, nails

Seventy feet long, thirteen feet wide and following the contours of an uneven slope in Laumeier’s Way Field, Robert Stackhouse’s St. Louie Bones, 1987, creates a rippling silhouette on the Park’s landscape. Conceptually modeled by the presence of our two powerful waterways, St. Louie Bones is a wooden structure with many historical associations. St. Louie Bones may look like a boat turned minimalist sculpture, but it also suggests a stage of primitive ritual. Resembling a rickety raft boat, St. Louis Bones recalls those who live by and travel the river: from native tribes in canoes, the European immigrants who landed via steamboats, to the river pilots that keep the local economy flowing. Like a ship tipping into a wave, idea and form are linked in a visual metaphor: this sculpture presents a platform to express a literal, imaginary or spiritual voyage.

Laumeier Sculpture Park Commission with funds from the Mark Twain Laumeier Endowment Fund

Location: Way Field