Friday My Town: Black and White

 

 

 

 

The FMTSO theme this week is Black & White. I haven’t really been in the right kind of mood though. I tried a few shots outdoors earlier in the week, but all looked better in colour… (I’m so not looking forward to winter…)

But then today I re-visited this sculpture (entitled House 18) inside a church, and against the black background here, I quite like the B&W effect. The sculpture is cut out of blocks of alabaster and marble. The name of the artist is Lars-Åke Åberg; and the sculpture has been part of this summer’s sculpture biennal in my town.

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See more ‘black and white’ here.

Friday My Town: Tour Guide

This should be easy, but considering I’ve been blogging continually about my town for about three years now, I’m finding it kind of hard to come up with something “new”.

However, it may come as a surprise to some bloggers who have been following me for a while now… that THIS is where most of my Swedish visiting friends have wanted to go in the past:

The shopping mall/district ‘Knalleland’ (well, part of it)!

Borås is an old textile and mailorder centre; and even though nowadays there are less actual ‘factory outlets’ than there used to be, we still have a reputation for cheap (or supposedly cheap) shopping - especially clothes.

Actually some people travel for hours to get here, only to spend hours going from shop to shop at this mall, and that’s pretty much all they see of the town.

People with small children who aren’t fond of shopping, usually bribe them by also throwing in a visit the zoo.

The zoo was founded in the 1960s and specializes in African endangered species - and our own Scandinavian ones (like wolves):

 

 

A place I like to suggest to visitors is the Textile Museum, which is unique in Sweden. They have a permanent exhibition of old machinery etc reflecting the textile history of the area; and seasonal exhibitions of varying kind. I’ve blogged about this museum before on several occasions.

 

Another favourite spot of mine is the Open Air Museum, a park with a variety of old buildings which have been moved there. In the main museum there is usually some current exhibition of local history or crafts. In the summer you may also find modern sculptures on display in the park. In the tourist season there is a café.

 

I also like our town centre where besides shopping you can go for a stroll along the river and in the town park. The riverside restaurants and cafés are popular in the summer.

 

In later years, Borås has managed to build a reputation as a town of many sculptures. We got a boost in 2008 with Jim Dine’s 9 m high broze sculpture of Pinocchio:

 

This summer we’re having our third sculpture biennal with some extra sculptures on loan in addition to the permanent ones. This time many of the new works are displayed in and around our newly renovated Cultural Centre; in which building you’ll find the art museum, library, and theatre.

 

‘Pose Plastique’ by Cajsa von Zeipel

For more interiors and sculptures,
see last week's FMTSO post.

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To take a tour of the highlights of some OTHER places around the world, go visit Friday My Town Shoot Out

Wordless Wednesday: Kiss

“Kyss” (Kiss) by Eva Marklund
at Borås International Sculpture Biennal 2012

Wordless Wednesday

Ruby Tuesday – Placed On Pedestal

‘Mann’ by Stephen Balkenhol (1998)
at Borås International Sculpture Biennal 2012

The artist, Stephen Balkenhol, was born in Germany 1957.

“He uses large blocks of timber to chisel out true-to-life men, women and animals, using a chainsaw and hammer. Balkenhol counters the classical ideal of elevated beauty. --- [His aim is] to break down the monumental aspect of figurative statues by placing the most ordinary men and women on pedestals – places that have normally been reserved for heroes and heroines.”

 

Reading this, I’m reminded of Psalm 8 in  the Bible:

What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet

Psalm 8 (King James verison)

 

 

Linking to Ruby Tuesday 2

 

Shadow Shot Sunday: Sculptures

“Untitled” by Katrine Helmersson (1998)
at Borås International Sculpture Biennal 2012

In the background - Gustav Adolf’s Church

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See more shadows at Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Friday My Town: Made By Hand

Two years ago I visited a museum in a small village near my town which displays the wooden sculptures of a local artist, Uno Axelsson.  He was 53 years old when he started making sculptures and about 80 when he died. He made about 250 wooden sculptures, big and small. He found his inspiration in nature, studying animals, and collecting oddly shaped pieces of wood.

He started with smaller things like bowls:

But went on to also making big, life-size sculptures:

All his sculptures were made in one piece.
The eyes are not glass but painted and lacquered.

He never sold any sculptures. He gave some away but kept most of them in a private museum in his own barn.

After his death, the collection was moved to a new museum built by the local folklore society. More photos from there can be seen here (my blog from 2010)

 

In 2010, we had a stone sculptor working on this gigantic stone head in the town centre during a sculpture festival (going on all summer). The finished sculpture has been moved to another place. I think I have a photo of it finished as well, but I can’t find it now. The polished surface has the darker colour you can see in the top left photo, under the ear.

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See more things made by hand:
Friday My Town Shoot Out

Friday My Town – Human Labor

The FMTSO theme this week is Human Labor: “Show us the laborers of your town that make it what it is today and keep it going on a daily basis.”

Well. My town this week went a little bit beyond “on a daily basis”. But it did involve a lot of Human Labor…

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Some fresh flowers had to be planted around town. (Sorry, I did not get a picture of that, but you know how that’s done, don’t you.)

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A very special meal had to be prepared by students at the restaurant school. I was not invited, so could not take pictures of that either.
But here is a dessert prepared by the same (or other) students at that school back in May (and which I did have the pleasure of eating).

 

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A special toilet had to be renovated. Here’s the queue:

Just kidding… But it’s inside that building!

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And then the town sculptures all had to be tied into knots…

… Kidding again, but some of them were cleaned and polished extra …

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A lot of blue ropes also had to be put up and tied into knots:

… or held up manually, if there was nothing else to tie them to:

   

And policemen made sure the public stayed on the right side of them.

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The Press did their job…

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And people who had nothing better to do (like me) just hung around:

… waiting to watch these people do their job …

 

King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia

Their job today was to visit our town’s refuse recycling plant
(I wonder if that gave them good appetite for lunch?)
and then to go for a 1 hour walk in our town center
and park, looking at some of all our sculptures.
(I do hope those shoes the queen was wearing
are more comfortable than they look.)

 

Smiling and waving is included in the job description.

~ Bye! ~

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The sculpture of the gun tied into a knot is
Non-Violence by Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd.

The sculpture stands in a little park
named after a Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Anna Lindh, who was assassinated in a shopping center
in Stockholm on 10 September 2003.

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Whatever opinion one may have of the King’s and Queen’s “jobs”… and monarchy vs republic etc… I have to say that today’s event made quite an impression on me. Not because I’m all that devoted a royalist; but seeing the king and queen in the Anna Lindh park with that non-violence memorial, and then be able to “follow them around” through the town center, was quite a powerful reminder that it is far from self-evident to be able to have a public event like this at all.

From the local newspaper: The King’s and Queen’s sculpture walk.
The Non-Violence sculpture is No 3 on the map.

Shadow Shot Sunday: Seeing the Light

 

This is a grave monument at an old cemetery close to where I live.
I must have walked past it many times without noticing it at all.
Until one day the light happened to be “just right”…

 

Shadow Shot Sunday