An occasional table by Calen Knauf built from aluminum legs cast into successive layers of tinted epoxy resin

Flywater is an occasional table produced by Calen Knauf for Slanted Enchanted, an exhibition at Erin Stump Projects in Toronto. The piece came from 2 specific observations made at different times. The first was a fly caught in a water-covered surface at Alice Liechtenstein's castle, fixed in place at the exact point where it met the material. The second was the visual quality of leftover epoxy after mixing: the solid puddle left behind after the work is done, often with a small stir stick still embedded in it.

The table takes that second image as its construction method. 3 raw waxed aluminum legs were placed upright in separate tinted epoxy puddles and left to cure. Those individual puddles, legs included, were then placed together in a new, larger puddle and cured again. That combined form was placed in another pour, and the process was repeated until the accumulated layers reached a satisfying thickness. The table's base is the direct record of its own making, each layer visible within the resin.

The result sits somewhere between furniture and cast object. The aluminum legs are structural but also suspended, held in place by the material that surrounds them rather than fastened to a frame. The epoxy base carries the tint and depth of the successive pours, its surface neither perfectly flat nor entirely opaque, reading differently depending on the angle and the light.