Artscape

Art gallary without walls and roof

The idea for Skulpturlandskap Nordland is the idea that a work of art with its presence creates its own place and through the sculpture the place gets a new dimension.

The sculptures are standing outdoor in 35 municipalities in Nordland. The area cowers ​​40,000 square kilometers and are an art gallery without walls and ceilings.

The artists in Artscape Nordland have designed their work after visiting the municipality they were assigned.

The artist familiarized himself with the nature and culture of the municipality in which they were to create the artwork. Then they presented a sketch for a work placed in a specific place in the municipality. These meetings between the place and the artist are the basis for the meeting that all visitors can take part in when they visit the artworks in this collection.

Vesterålen and Lødingen

In Vesterålen and Lødingen we have 6 sculptures. In addition, we have an outdoor gallery with large photographs of all 36 sculptures in Atrscape Nordland.

Øymuseet (The Island Museum) in Andøy

Raffael Rheinsberg's art has been described as an "everyday archaeology". He shows us the things we use in work and leisure, and in this way holds up a "mirror" that tells us how we live.

The Island Museum houses a collection of objects the artist found on Andøya in August 1992. The collection is exhibited in a separate building at the Andøy museum.

• Availability: Øymuseet is part of Andøy museum in Andenes center..

Mannen fra havet (The man from the sea) in Bø

It has been said that myths are like invisible threads that weave societies together. At the same time they are also stories which gently help us to understand the reality of the situation we are living in.

Killi Olsen's sculpture Mannen fra havet reflects both of these definitions of myth, while also creating a new myth.

We find ourselves spinning a story of a man who has left the sea and trodden on firm ground, holding an obelisk-shaped crystal in his hand, as an offering - the artist has suggested - to his former abode.

• Availability: By Vinjesjøen. Follow signs to Bø Museum. Approx. 400m walk from the parking at the museum, you find the statue, and an outdoor art gallery.

Dager og netter (Days and nights) in Hadsel

The shape of Days and Nights comes from houses one often looks at in children's drawings. Dager og netter are two granite houses, one in dark and the other in light granite, which are located in a landscape characterized by the fjord and the buildings on the other side of it.

The artist Sarkis Zabunyan says that the sculpture's form og a house also refers to thoughts about outside and inside, interior and exterior, the safe and the threatening, nature and culture.

The play of light on these stone surfaces, combined with the reflection of the houses in the water surface of the fjord, creates an ever-changing scene, where the viewer can reflect on both the sculpture's meaning and himself when he or she catches sight of the sculpture.

• Availability: The sculpture is located on Børøya, opposite the center of Stokmarknes. Path from parking at bridge.

Havøyet (The Ocean Eye) in Sortland

The sculpture Havøyet contains two basic shapes: a boat and a house.

They reflect basic human needs, and the symbols are known all over the world. The house rests on the boat, and in the middle of the boat there is a diamond-shaped opening. This window opens to and frames the beautiful view across to the other side of the fjord.

Gudmundsson's art shows how close poetry actually is to everyday things, to what we see and think, and how we understand it. This is the kind of poetry that does not suggest escape, instead it recommends that we try to see things from a different point of view.

• Availability: The sculpture is readily available at the pier in the center of Sortland.

Etterbilder (Afterimages) in Øksnes

Inghild Karlsen's two-part sculpture with its shifting meanings can be situated in several fields of reference. Its visual form is taken from everyday life and has its starting-point in the type of street lamp commonly used in the area. This shape borrowed from the everyday has then been translated into the language of stone and sculpture.

The sculptures have been sited in two different places - one is in the community's centre, in a little park where the lamppost casts its shadow onto the surrounding earth. The other is in an area that resembles the end of the world, The former fishing village Nyksund.

• Availability: The sculptures are located in two different places, in the center of Myre and Nyksund.

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Text reproduced with permission from Sculpture Landscape Nordland, Nordland County Council.