Gollum and the Sparrows

In a park I’m not sure I ever visited before, I came across this Gollum-like creature today. It’s called Viskarn ~ “The Whisperer” ~ and was created by by Swedish artist Christian Partos in 1999.

 

I just had to check the dates when I got home. Please note: The Lord of the Rings’ promotional trailer was first released on 27 April 2000…

Well, we always wanted to be Avantgarde here in Borås!

By the way, the river flowing through town is called Viskan (without the ‘r’). Was the sculpture given its name on purpose or by coincidence? I have no idea!

Anyway, the birds seem unconcerned about all that stuff. They regard the fountain as their bath tub, and never mind the creepy creature watching them.

I think these must be Eurasian Tree Sparrows (Passer Montanus) (Swedish: pilfink) rather than common sparrows, because of their brown heads.

Skywatch Friday / FMTSO: Colours of Early Summer

These are some photos I took out of the car window last Friday as my brother and I drove “the scenic route” from town out into the countryside.

Big Flowers

The third of my Clematis plants on the balcony is now in bloom – and the flowers on this one are huge! It’s a ‘Warszawska Nike’.

Please Take Fake Information

Yesterday I went for another walk to the Textile Fashion Center, with the special purpose to pick up some Misinformation.

For the duration of this summer’s Sculpture Biennial, in the entrance hall of the Fashion Center, just opposite the genuine information desk, you will also find a Falskkiosk (Fake Kiosk).

During the opening week, inside the Falskkiosk, you would (most of the time) find the artist Momus, also known as Nicholas Currie.

When not talking to people, he was writing a series of ‘newsletters’ to be left in the kiosk for future visitors to read. They are all entitled “Official misinformation service of the Borås International Sculpture Biennial 2014.”

Going back this week, I found he had left a series of 45 different letters behind. I think I’ve now managed to collect them all – but I have not yet read them all. Some of them seem to be quite a clever mix of facts, fiction and philosophy, though.

For example, in one of them he writes:

I don’t mean to imply that the things I’m saying in these newsletters are insincere. They’re mostly lies, but lies don’t have to be insincere; one writes what one would sincerely like to be the case, rather than what one knows to be the case. In this sense, lies are a bit like progressive politics; both are based on what ought to be rather than what is.

I once wrote a book full of lies about Scotland. On the cover was the motto: EVERY LIE CREATES THE PARALLELL WORLD IN WHICH IT IS TRUE.

A Postcard

I’m still enjoying Postcrossing. Sharing every nice card that drops in through my letterbox on the blog as well just takes too much time, I’m afraid.

But this card that arrived today made me smile, and I felt I wanted to share it. The sender managed to find a card that combines no less than three rather different things on my postcrossing wishlist: book illustrations, butterflies and “anything to do with tea”.

The scene reminds me of the Mad Hatter’s tea party in Alice in Wonderland, but the sender informs me that it belongs to a Russian fairy tale “Buzzy-Wuzzy Busy Fly” by K.I. Chukovsky. Looking him up in Wikipedia, I find that Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky (1882 – 1969) was one of the most popular children's poets in the Russian language. His catchy rhythms, inventive rhymes and absurd characters have also invited comparisons with the American children's author Dr. Seuss. (As it happens, I don’t think I ever read any book by Dr Seuss either, even if I’ve heard of him.)