Vigeland Tales
One of the assignments we received this week at TITAN was something I’ve been wanting do since I first got to Oslo over a year ago; go to Vigeland Park. If you don’t know what it is, Vigeland Sculpture Park is a public park in Oslo that really acts as an outdoor museum for artist Gustav Vigeland. I had heard so much about this park before I left for Oslo from Americans who had been, urging me to go; now I understand why.
My first impression of the park when walking in was that it was huge. When I walked in, my eyes immediately darted to the Monolith in the center of the park, but I had a long way to go before I got there. Our assignment was to spend at least one minute examining each of the over 200 statues, and pick five that stood out to us which we would create a movement piece out of. I started on the bridge, where statues are aligned on both sides. I immediately started taking pictures, not just because I needed them but because since this was my first time in the park, I thought it was okay to be a tourist for a few hours. I was completely blown away by how completely realistic the statues looked, and how powerful the images were.
The park itself is absolutely stunning, and like I said big, at a whopping 80 acres. We also really lucked out on the day because although it was cold, the sun was shining and the sky was a bright blue. Eventually I reached the monolith, possibly the most famous piece of work by Vigeland. At over 46 feet tall, I was utterly amazed at how one man could complete such an intense sculpture. Comprising of the monolith are 121 human figures all struggling to get to the top. Vigeland created this to symbolize man’s desire to be closer with the spiritual and divine. I’ll leave it to the pictures to speak for themselves, but if you ever get the chance to go to this park and view these up close, I strongly urge you to do so. It is an experience you won’t forget.
Edit:
I’ve added a few additional pictures here, but excuse my poor photography skills; it’s not my strong suit!