Poking out from the treetops in Oslo’s Frogner Park, is a single piece of carved Norwegian granite: a white monolith rising amidst the green. Upon closer inspection, sculptor Gustav Vigeland’s pièce de résistance reveals itself to be a 14-metre column, composed of 121 entangled bodies, piled atop each other.
Vigeland’s sculptures are also more exuberant like this one that details young children running. Photo: Christian Kober/Jai/Corbis/Imagelibrary
Vigeland, who designed the Nobel Peace Prize medal, had a style that borders on the bizarre. This is particularly evident in this sculpture garden, an 80-acre stretch, strewn with 212 fantastical bronze and granite figures.
Informally known as the monolith, the tower of bodies is perhaps the most wondrous of these exhibits. Twisted bodies, young and old, male and female, embrace each other. The figures get progressively younger higher up. Some face upwards hopefully, others look dishevelled and beaten. A gamut of emotions, the essence of Vigeland’s work, comes to life on these stony faces.
It took three carvers 14 years, beginning in 1922, to create this pillar using Vigeland’s plaster model. On a raised platform of circular stairs, it is the highest point in Frogner Park. Surrounding it in three concentric rings are 36 sculptures on lower levels, each depicting human relationships. I move between these, running my hands over the smooth white granite. There are couples in varying stances: a man holds a woman by her head and balances her on his back. It could convey support and love; but it looks to me like he’s throwing her. In another sculpture, a group of young children huddle in a circle, as if they’re sharing secrets and won’t let outsiders in. A woman crouches on all fours, carrying on her back a baby and young child. This one needs no pondering.
Some of Vigeland’s more complex pieces include human bodies holding each other in precarious positions. Photo: Holder Leue/Lonely Planet Images/Getty Images
I’m glad there are no plaques with lengthy explanations of the artist’s ideas. As with the rest of Vigeland’s works, the monolith remains unnamed and unexplained. To many Norwegians, the monolith—stretching towards the sky, with figures clamouring towards the top—signifies a human desire for the divine. Gro, a local who’s showing me around, sees something else altogether.
Gustav Vigeland’s bronze, granite, and wrought-iron sculptures (left), 212 in all, are spread over 80 acres of Frogner Park. Human relationships were the very essence of the sculptor’s work and many of Vigeland’s more complex pieces feature human bodies entangled, piled together, or carrying each other in precarious positions; Vigeland’s exuberance is evident in sculptures like this one (right) of a woman playing with her hair. Photo: Abo Zaunders/Corbis/Iimagelibrary (child); Holder Leue/Lonely Planet Images/Getty Images (woman).
“I think it depicts new life,” she says. “You’ll see the top is all young children and babies. The future.” Vigeland died in 1943; his vivid artistic expression may be at rest, but his art is sure to fire the imagination of generations to come.
Appeared in the March 2015 issue as “Embracing The Future”.
Malavika Bhattacharya is a freelance journalist who writes about travel, culture, and food. She travels for the outdoors: to dive deep in the Indian Ocean, crawl through caves in Meghalaya, and hike through the Norwegian fjords.
Hey there! Like what you see (or not)? Tell us what you think at web.editor@natgeotraveller.in.