Going fishing is literally a point of no return: From the time you jump in, there is no chance of drifting away for any length of time. At this point, where in reality you’re only 10 metres in the water, some people simply laugh as you venture toward them, unsure of what to expect next. The on-the-floor design of the 20-foot hole is designed to mimic the escape hatch. The way the bottom shoots up to shake has been designed to make sure you get loose. Experts here on the ground look after the water.
Lyle Stone’s client Kelly Raphael has a keen interest in fishing, and what he’s trying to do is turn art into a recreational pastime. Raphael has turned clay into works of artistic piece, some of which he himself has photographed.
Raphael’s first foray into metalwork, a daughter painting without her glasses, is found in his modern wing of the Outpost. Raphael takes it there whenever he needs a break and shows it to anyone who asks. One woman asked why Raphael paints his daughter’s pictures without her glasses; Raphael told her it was just to take the paint out of her eyes. After that she asked him if he could do her eyes without them. They end up on his back wall.
In December of 2017, Raphael collaborated with Stone to take the conceptual and set his works into action. The two built a custom metal wall system for Raphael’s daughter to paint. One set of work by Raphael is welded, and then the charcoal paintings are welded, leaving very little room for the work to wobble. The metal comes in pieces, and Stone combines them to build the mechanisms for hand-carrying the separate beams into place.
This installed system serves two purposes: it serves as an energy facility for Raphael’s paintings, providing them with a constant source of heat, and it allows Raphael’s daughter to paint as easily as she can now when the power is off. Stone explains that the welded sculptures serve a dual purpose—in order to lift the work safely into place, these welded grids require some effort from the work itself, allowing it to be as sturdy as possible.