Optical Illusions

 (Continued from previous two posts.)

Further on along the river, I found this art installation. I was thinking that it was probably a perfect day to view it - the sky so blue, and the water still like a mirror... But on the other hand, I should probably go back in some other kind of weather as well, to see what it looks like then!

Text from the online brochure:

Disrupting Ebb and Flow, 2023
by Elin Stampe (b.1992), Stockholm

A silvery veil spreads reflected
light above the Viskan river and the
Posttorget plaza. Optical illusions
appear on the water, like a flickering
archway that changes with the wind
and movement.

On approaching, you will discover that the
glittering consists of squares of mirror foil on
wires, forming triangles. The history of Viskan is
intimately entwined with Borås; it still character-
ises the city and brings its inhabitants close to
the entire aquatic habitat. To this day, fragments
from the textile mills are found in its vicinity.  

The artist, Elin Stampe, has obvious roots in the realm
of textiles, with its associations to protection,
flexibility and its potential to both enfold and
build volumes. With her monumental installation
Disrupting Ebb and Flow, Stampe connects with
the history of places in a tangible and tender
way. The title also reminds us of another force
– the gravitational pull generated in the mutual
relationship between Earth and the moon. The
eye is bewildered by the flashes of light. 

A version of the work was shown in
a completely different setting in the summer of
2023: Sergels torg plaza in central Stockholm. 

The brochure also mentions the installation being accompanied by "a suggestive sound loop" - but I did not hear that, so the sound must have been off when I was there.

In the background in the photo above is a church tower, which also seems to have some work of art on it. So I went to have a closer look at that, too.

 

 Fiete Stolte (b. 1979) lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

Outdoors, works from Stolte’s
photographic series Roots
(2019) are exhibited, which,
at first glance, look like tree
roots. In reality, what we see is
the branches of a leafless tree
top. The title, Roots, leads us to
believe that it is the earthy part
of the tree we are looking at, but when we realise
what it is, we become aware of the tree’s biolog-
ical symmetry. The images are also inverted, like
photo negatives, the historical analogue forerun-
ner of today’s digital photography.

I have so far only seen this one, but perhaps there are more to be found around town.

The Boy and the Turtle

 

In a playground park close to where I live, there is this statue of a boy balancing on a turtle - looking rather like he's using it as a surfboard. I understand that originally they belonged in a pond with a fountain; but that's long gone - only the statue left. And just now, in the snow, perhaps more accurate to say the boy is using the turtle as "snowboard"! (Brrr. I feel a bit like dressing him up warm...)

I snapped this photo yesterday when walking through that park. When uploading it to my computer today, I did a bit of "online surfing" to see if I could find out more about it. Turns out it was made in 1945 (when this whole housing estate was new), by an artist named Bror Chronander (1880-1964). What inspired the statue I've not been able to find out, though. Its title does not include the word surfing - it's just "The Boy and the Turtle".

It occured to me to also ask Bing Image Creator for "a young boy surfing on a turtle", and below is what I got. One of the four actually comes pretty close to the statue!

 

 

Smögen

(Still Thursday 10 August)
From Hunnebostrand (previous two posts) we drove on another 11 km or so down south to Smögen - another old west coast village with not very many permanent inhabitants in winter, but all the more crowded with tourists in the summer holiday season. (Smögen is also closely connected with a somewhat larger small town, Kungshamn - but we did not have time to stop there as well.)

"In modern times, Smögen is well known for its long, wooden pier, about 600 m (2,000 ft), filled with shops in old fishing huts, which are frequented by a multitude of tourists during the summer. Smögen is one of the most popular tourist destinations on the Swedish west coast, well known for its fish, prawns and other seafood, and one of Sweden's few fish markets is located here. There is also an extensive nightlife scene, with many bars, clubs and concert venues open during the summer" (Wikipedia)

In general, I'm not all that fond of really crowded places. But there was one very special reason why I wanted to go to Smögen - and in fact, that was also what inspired me to suggest this whole trip to begin with... 

The things is, I have an old friend (Lena) since nearly 50 years who is a water colour artist, and nowadays (having retired from her other job as a teacher) living full time on the west coast; and in summer she always has a few exhibitions in these kinds of places. I've never yet (until now) had the opportunity to visit any of her exhibitions, but I have long been wanting to. And last week happened to be her last week (of three) in Smögen, and Thursday the next to last day of the exhibition... So I was really excited that we managed to fit that in!

Just finding somewhere to park in Smögen is an ordeal in itself, but at last we managed it (although it required quite a bit of manouvering skills from my brother). And then we just followed the general stream of other tourists towards the famous wooden pier... 

Lena had sent me a photo of "her" fishing hut, so I knew what to look for... (I had texted her the evening before to tell her that we intended to come by, and to make sure she was going to be there in person). I'm taking the liberty of including her photo here (taken on a less busy day), as I forgot to take one myself once we were there. (The items on display outdoors are trays and coasters and other items with printed images of her paintings, not so sensitive to the weather - and no doubt very popular tourist souvenirs.)

The disadvantage of being there on a rather busy day was that she had lots of other customers popping in and out of the tiny shop while I was there, interrupting our chatting... (But I was prepared that it would be like that.) Still, it was really great to meet her again (many years since we last met in person, I can't even remember when that was). An extra reason now being that we lost a dear mutual friend back in January - so quite a lot of our chat was related to that. As a 'bonus', just when we arrived, one of her sisters happened to be there as well - but just about to leave. Even longer since I last met her; and good to see her too again - even if only to say "hi and goodbye"...

My brother rambled off on his own along the pier for a while, leaving us to our memories... And while Lena was busy with customers, I climbed upstairs on my own to have a peek at her exhibition of originals and large prints up there.

 

Before we left, my brother took this photo (below) of the two of us. 

I also made a purchase (the parcel Lena is holding)... I've long been thinking that I'd like to have an original painting by her. I have some trays since before, and also a couple of small signed and framed prints (which she sent me by post). But buying an original is different - and not something I'm used to doing. I looked through the ones she had for sale upstairs (mostly signed prints, but she had a few originals too) but it was when I got back down again that my eyes fell on one that I almost immediately felt could be The One. And it turned out to be an original from which no prints have been made. I almost had a hard time convincing her that I really wanted to buy it (not just because of feeling some sort of obligation to buy one) ... But it did get to go home with me in the end. :)  Lena wrapped it up well for me, and my brother carried it to the car. Back at home I soon found the perfect place for it: in my hall, just by the (doorless) opening into my living room. (I do love it, and  there's no way I'll regret the purchase!)

 

You can see more of Lena's art on her website here.

 

Hunnebostrand - 'Udden' Sculpture Exhibition

 

 

From Bovallstrand (previous post) we drove on to Hunnebostrand (about 5-6 km to the south), another small(ish) sea-side village - with about 2000 permanent inhabitants; but full of tourists in summer. Back in the previous century it was an important place for the Swedish quarry industry (mainly granite). More recently, they've turned one of the old quarries into another interesting setting for a sculpture park. Not as large as Pilane (link to my recent post from there), but more easily accessible.

Udden = 'The Headland'
Sculpture 'Vindarnas Hus' (House of the Winds) by Lars Widenfalk (SE)

"Udden Skulptur is an international sculpture exhibition at Udden in Hunnebostrand, a historic quarry and one of the finest in Sweden, where the most qualified stone works were carried out from the mid-19th century to the middle of the 20th century."

"This site is now an exhibition space for sculpture that is completely unique in the world with a vertical 40 m high granite wall, a large meadow where the quarry was located, and the endless sea that offered the transport of stone to distant lands. A place with magnificent beauty that has everything that Sotenäs and Bohuslän’s tourism industry rests on: an untouched nature and everyone’s access to the coast."

'Säng' (Bed) by Anders Thorlin (SE)

'Diamonds are forever' by Peder Istad (SE)

Novice by Viktor Grachev (RU)

 

 

'Swedish Madonna - After the Bath'
by Russian-Swedish artist Viktor Korneev

'Ascent' by Viktor Korneev (SE)

'Ohne Titel' (das Messer) (Without Title - The Knife) by Hubert Maier (DE)

'Slägga' (Sledgehammer) by Claes Haake (SE)

'Open Globe' by Ulf Johnsson (SE)

'The veiled man'
by Hans Leutscher (SE) (2011)

 

▲These are probably not sculptures but "tools" from the old quarry (?) ▼

 

More photos from Hunnebostrand in my next post.

"All Things Bright and Spooky"

This year (in spite of skyrocketing electricity bills) our City Park has been decorated with some "Bright Art", to brighten up the dark winter months (from Halloween until after New Year). As today I was out after lunch (around 2 pm), I had not really expected them to be lit yet; but some of them were. I suppose I should go back some late afternoon in twilight to see the full effect. But for now, here is how I saw it today.
 

 

 

I missed the sign for this one, so don't know what it's called. But it comes with spooky howling sounds in the background...

 

(Saving some more photos of "nature's own art" for another post.)