Giant sculpture on Muskoka dock
- 1/17
Until recently, this 900-kilogram giant guarded Toronto's Distillery District. Koilos sat there without Michael Christian, its creator, even realizing just how many people appreciated his steel monster.
Christopher Woo - 2/17
"I didn’t realize it was appreciated so much ... until we moved it and started receiving nice emails from people," Christian wrote to Yahoo! Canada News.
Andrew Cumming - 3/17
The sculpture's new home is on the dock of a Muskoka cottage, in Ontario, where its new owner's getting some polarizing feedback from the neighbours.
Andrew Cumming - 4/17
"I'm blown away," "Fantastic," "Thank you for bringing it here for us to enjoy," some said after spotting the giant kneeling towards the water. Others have called it "horrible," "scary" and questioned the owner's sanity. Some critics have warmed up to it since it arrived this May, the owner says.
Andrew Cumming - 5/17
In order to move Koilos, Christian and his California colleague had to disassemble him into four pieces.
Andrew Cumming - 6/17
The pieces were transported on a flatbed truck.
Andrew Cumming - 7/17
It took the sculpture all the way to Muskoka.
Andrew Cumming - 8/17
Other drivers must have been surprised to see this scene.
Scott Cochrane - 9/17
Koilos was then installed on the dock of an island using a barge and a boom truck.
Andrew Cumming - 10/17
It wasn't easy.
Andrew Cumming - 11/17
"It looks great on the dock," writes Andrew Cumming, the sculpture's new owner.
Andrew Cumming - 12/17
"I built this dock for this piece of art, so it is gratifying to me that it looks as good as I thought it would."
Andrew Cumming - 13/17
Cumming told CBC that he purchased the art after noticing that Koilos was starting to show signs of wear and tear.
Andrew Cumming - 14/17
At that point, the sculpture had already gone through a stint at Burning Man festival in Nevada and spent almost four years in Toronto. Since the Distillery District's lease on the creature was ending, he decided to buy the monster and make a radical modification of the island's landscape.
Andrew Cumming - 15/17
"The dock location is dramatic, unique, and it affords people the opportunity to enjoy it, the way public-scale art should be," Cumming wrote of his choice. "If I put it on a farm or up on a mountain top, nobody would be able to get close to it."
Andrew Cumming - 16/17
As for the artist, Christian is thrilled about the amount of attention his monster's been getting. There's no way to get feedback on public art, he explains, so this has been an unexpected development. "I think it's wonderful that people love it and hate it. It would be pretty boring if everyone had the same response," he says, adding he hopes the sculpture hasn’t offended the viewers.
Andrew Cumming - 17/17
If you are still wondering about the meaning of Christian's monster, here's how the artist explained it to the Digital Journal a few years ago:
Andrew Cumming
Updated
Koilos, Michael Christian's 900-kilogram sculpture, was moved from Toronto's Distillery District to Andrew Cumming's Muskoka cottage dock in May. Find out about the move in the captions of the photos below.