AN ARTIST'S PARK

FROGNER PARK

I’ve visited several sculpture gardens but never one like Frogner Park in Oslo, Norway. The park is much loved and respected with no fences, police or graffiti. The park is large requiring a good while to wander and to see the Vigeland sculpture collection. Steps lined with voluptuous stone figures, is a popular place to sit, congregate and contemplate.

There was a light rain on arrival when we disembarked our ferry, but fortunately it stopped mid morning and remained clear the rest of the day. The 75-acre park holds the life works of Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943). In 1921 he made a deal with the city that in exchange for a studio and support he would beautify the city with a sculpture garden. He worked on site from 1924-1943. Each of the bronze or granite figures is unique. There are 600 figures in all. He also designed the landscaping.

Gustav Vigeland first visited Oslo in 1899.  He drafted plans for a fountain and presented them to the city in 1905, but the project was rejected. However, in 1914 he was asked to do the fountain, but by then his plans had expanded. WW II interrupted the completion of the park, but it was finished in 1960.

            

There is only one Vigeland sculpture outside Norway and that is in a Norwegian community in Fargo, North Dakota. There are an additional twenty sculptures in Norway outside of Oslo. Otherwise his life’s work is in the park. He married twice and had children by his first wife. After that divorce he lost contact with his children. He said they distracted him and interrupted his creative process. When he died he left everything to the city which was fine with his children who felt they never had a father. Vigeland took that name after his grandfather’s farm

          

  A 100-yard-long bridge over the river has four columns, one on each corner. Three depict man fighting a lizard, but in the fourth one a woman  succumbs to the lizard’s embrace. The theme of the entire collection is the relationship between people. In addition there are 59 sculptures along the bridge rails. Off to one side of the bridge is a circle with nine children who represent the nine months of pregnancy.

        

    A symmetrical rose garden, located half way between the beginning of the bridge and the monolith, represents eternal life. Then comes the fountain of life—his water fountain. Six figures hold up the fountain, the burden of life. The fountain is surrounded by twenty trees of life. The figures on the trees depict life from birth to death, the seasons of life: childhood, young love, adulthood, and the winter of life. Sixty bronze reliefs around the basin develop the theme further. The large patio surrounding the fountain contain 150,000 pieces of black and white granite forming a mosaic with many twists and turns representing the labyrinth of life.

           

The world’s largest monolith is the centerpiece of the park. Thirty-six large monoliths surround it, each carved from a solid piece of granite, again representing the cycle of life. The monolith and its 121 single figures is cut out of a single piece of granite. It took three stonecutters fourteen years working daily to complete the 180-ton, 50-foot tall erection. Vigeland lived to see the monolith raised.

         

   The entire park is a masterpiece and it was a delightful visit that took several hours. There was so much to see and absorb.

INTERESTING TID BITS

STORY POLES

You may be more familiar with the term totem pole, and if you haven’t been to Canada for several years you may not have heard the term story poles. The word totem is actually an American Indian word, but it seems early explorers thought native peoples worshiped totem poles. This is not at all true as the poles tell a family history. The history of totem poles is long and interesting so long story short for several years now Canadians have referred to totem poles as story poles.

Along this line the terminology of Indian, Eskimo and any other ‘old fashion’ term for the native peoples has been replaced with First Nation’s People or peoples. Personally I like this descriptive name absent of any kind of connotation. Both of these terms have been incoperated into Canadian English and are widely used.

ONION vs HELMET DOMES

Like most people, I thought an onion dome was an onion dome. It was not until I was in Russia that the difference of an onion dome and a helmet dome was pointed out to me, and if I recall correctly it was in the Kremlin.

Onion domes definitely look like onions and are probably the most popular and widely used dome. They abound on churches and are a common sight in many Eastern European cities. When one knows the difference it is easy to spot a helmet dome. They do look like a soldier’s helmet of old. These domes are seen  less often and are pretty rare in the United States.

My home town does have both domes in its city’s square that can be  seen and easily compared from a vantage point in the county court house.

TIBET and the YAK

TACHI DE LAY (hello)

Getting to and from Llasa,Tibet is not always an easy thing to do. Sand storms and wind often delay or cancel flights as getting though the cut in the Himalayas can be tricky. We had a very early wakeup call as we were scheduled on a 7:20 AM flight from Chengdu, China to Llasa. Boarding passes, airport tax, tickets and other necessary documents were taken care of for us by our guide.  Then we learned that people going to
Lhasa the day before got sand-stormed out and were rebooked on our flight. We were off to the airport hotel for the morning until our noon flight.

I’ll spare you details of the once lovely hotel that catered to the wealthy. It definitely had seen better days!  The majority of our luggage was left in Chengdu, so we  left with only what we would need for four days. The plane was a large modern one and there were no complaints about it or any of the other three domestic flights we took while in China---all on different airlines.

Because of the hour,we were served a very good lunch. Most of the flight was well above the cloud cover, and the Himalayas did not appear until shortly before landing. The plane traveled through a narrow opening in the mountains down into the Yellow Valley. I swear I could have touched the side of the mountains if I’d been sitting on the wing tip!

Few people were able to visit Lhasa, Tibet’s capitol, before tourism opened 1980. Lhasa has been the heart and soul as well as the political and economic center of Tibet for 350 years.

Our sweet guide told us, “Use the bathroom on the plane before landing because the one at the Lhasa airport  is terrible.You don’t want to use it.”     We did as suggested, but on arrival we found ourselves in a brand new airport that had opened in late December 2003. The restrooms were clean with one western toilet. (We’ll talk about eastern and western toilets another day.)

It was riding over the rough paved road that I saw my first yak. Our van driver stopped so he could tell us about them as we watched two yoked yaks plowing a field. Bells were attached to the yoke and the animals wore red ribbons in their hair. An irresistible photo op!

Our local Tibitean guide told us, “The yak is locally referred to as the boat of the highlands because it is a great pack animal. The long-black-hair animal provides milk, cheese, butter and meat. Its dung  mixed with hay and sun dried provides fuel for heat. A yak head placed over the front door of a home is believed to protect the family.

“Not long ago nearly a million wild yak roamed freely on the plains, but due to increased demand for yak meat that herd  is estimated to be only 15,000 now. An adult yak stands nearly six feet tall at the shoulder, weighs about a ton, and has sharp three four-foot long horns. One yak of a certain color in a herd is considered bad luck, but two of the same color is considered good luck.

“Yak crowd tightly together. If they move to lower altitudes they become susceptible to disease and parasites and experience upset reproductive systems. Used to temperatures that range around 40 degrees below zero they have course shaggy black hair that covers a layer of fine undercoat, thus creating a natural all-weather coat. About 80% of the yak live in the highlands.

“Important to a Tibetan family the yak is well cared for. The number of yak owned by a family indicates the family’s wealth.”