wandering in oslo

when we went last month, i hadn't been in oslo in 5 years and it seemed to be much cooler and more happening than i remembered. a lot had changed, a lot had been built (some of it by apparently blind architects, as it's a real mish-mash (more about that in another post)), a lot was under renovation. it seems that norway, with its gazillion dollar sovereign oil fund, didn't suffer from the same economic crisis as the rest of the world. oslo is a pretty and very walkable little city. they had this art thing going on along aker brygge and i took a few shots of some of the thoughts. i'm not sure what i make of them, but i kind of like that they also ended up as selfies. i was happy to be wearing my new felt hat. we need to wear hats more often, don't you think? what do you make of these quotes?

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i need me a bibliotherapist.

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wacky theories about the pyramids are nothing new.

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the danish brand of socialism is actually pretty good.

on the streets of oslo

"rebel against this"

there's poetry on the streets of oslo. so it seems like terrible things couldn't possibly happen there.

it's shaping up to look like the work of a deranged local lunatic, but it's tragic nonetheless.

and so hard to comprehend. 

thinking of all of my friends in norway this evening.

street philosophy

"we own time, but time also owns us."

just had to share the

profundities from the streets of oslo.

set in stone

back on may 1, which turned out to be a holiday and i was stuck in norway because That Girl booked my tickets all wrong, i used my time wisely and went to the wonderful Vigeland Park in the center of the city. it features 200+ bronze and granite statues, all done by Gustav Vigeland (at least the the clay originals--craftsmen actually did the carving and casting) in the early part of the 20th century.

for me, many of them had the larger-than-life feel of the depictions of New Soviet Man and Woman prevalent in the same period in the early soviet union. i'm sure there are many who would balk at that description, looking back as we do through the distorted lens of history, but i do think there's something of it in some of the work. but perhaps even the soviet sculptors were capturing a general zeitgeist.

most fascinating to me were the depictions of children together with their parents (presumably that's who those adults were). they are at once frozen and yet there is a sense of movement in them, like maybe you just blinked at the wrong moment and missed it, but it's still lingering in the air.

it was a gorgeous spring day and the sculpture provoked many thoughts that day. there's just something about good sculpture--it's at once static and moving, solid yet fluid, warm and lifelike yet cold. when it's really good, it captures the dynamic of life--the dichotomies and opposites present in us all.

i think that's what speaks to you from good sculpture..although it's quite literally set in stone, there is life and movement and fluidity.  there's that sense that if you blink you'll miss the movement. i feel it reminding me to be ever watchful, not to miss a thing--in life as in sculpture. to try to capture the moments and hold them in memory, although memory is more porous than stone or bronze, it doesn't really stop us from trying does it?

note:  if you're thinking that i skipped the monolith, which is perhaps the most famous one, you're right, but i'm saving it for another post.