odd oslo
In preparing for my trip to Norway later this month, I came across a number of sites that proudly display public art from Oslo. Now, I'm not the most cultured cat--I skipped the Uffizi because the line was too long--but I think that these are pretty weird. They have a deeply disturbing aesthetic that's one part fascist realism (healthy stone bodies frolicking against the elements) and one part H.R. Giger. Here are a few examples:
(top) Nelson's Column meets Abu Ghraib in an explosive victory for bad taste.
(middle) works the representational boundary between symbolic piles of children and actual piles of children. Vaguely Darwinian. Disquieting.
(bottom) this might be called, "Being-Humped-By-A-Huge-Reptilian-Alien-While-Having-Your-Eyes-Shat-Upon." Or, "That Snake Has Arms!" It's a sort of cautionary sculpture. Knowing Scandinavia, it's probably about immigration.
* joshua, 6/15/2004 07:22:22 PM
