CMU School of Drama


Monday, April 17, 2023

A Man Tried to Climb One of Canada’s Most Famous Public Artworks and Got Trapped Inside It Until Rescuers Found Him

news.artnet.com: Police have hit 26-year-old Wakeem Courtoreille with a $5,000 fine and charged him with one count of mischief after he climbed inside the most famous sculpture in Edmonton, Alberta, and got trapped inside it over the weekend. It took three teams of emergency responders—including a technical rescue team from the fire department—about an hour and a half to extricate Courtoreille from Talus Dome, which is made from 1,000 handcrafted stainless steel spheres.

2 comments:

Jessica Williams said...

This is so incredibly funny to me. People will always be people and that is both extremely heartening as well as extremely disappointing at the same time. Like, I can not picture being in the frame of mind in which one would think that climbing this piece of art would be a good idea. I am not entirely sure if this was some sort of ill reasoned bid for attention or just pure idiocy or even just a dare from a friend but it definitely made me chuckle. I will admit, looking at that picture of the art piece it does not seem like the gaps between the reflective balls were large enough for a grown man to fall between but I guess looks can be deceiving. It is also a bit discouraging that the Jaws of Life, a tool that is often used in extremely serious situations, had to be used here although the “charge of mischief” the perpetrator was levied with does make it feel a bit better.

Natalie Lawton said...

Okay, I think this is one of the most absurd things I’ve commented on so far. What really got me was the “one count of mischief” that this man was charged with. Obviously, damaging art is not okay what this man did could've gone a lot worse than it did and he should consider himself lucky. But it must have been an extremely humbling experience to sit and wait to be rescued after doing something stupid. He thought, “This is bad” after falling through which also is hilarious. Of course, he was fined which makes sense due to him not technically putting anyone else in danger besides maybe the first responders. I’m glad that it seems he at least had some sort of self-awareness. And who knows maybe he will have learned his lesson about going on adventures that involve him vandalizing art and putting himself in danger. Perhaps next time he will scale a pillow factory or something.