Susanna J. Sturgis: Writer • Editor • Martha's Vineyard

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Statuesque

December 11, 2010

I confess: When I learned that a trip to Oslo was in my near future, I knew very little about the city. Yes, the Nobel Peace Prize was presented there -- in fact, it happened during the week I was in residence -- but that wasn't likely to involve me. Living on Martha's Vineyard has made me tourism-resistant. I don't want to "see the sights," which is to say "see what all the tourists are looking for," mainly because I know that "the sights" are at best only a small part of the story. I was going to Oslo to work. That (I hoped) put me a cut or two above "tourist."

All the same, I wasn't going to be working all the time, and I did want to take advantage of the opportunity to look around. I Googled, and I asked a few people who had been to Norway, and the consensus was that I should see the statues in Vigeland Park (Vigelandsparken). So I did. The consensus was right.

Gustav Vigeland designed the park and the more than 200 statues in it. Nearly all the statues depict human forms: man, woman, man and woman, man and man, woman and woman, woman and child, children together, and so on.

I took this looking out from the obelisk, which is near the center of the park. The day was overcast, and keep in mind that there are only about six hours of daylight this time of year. You usually feel as if the sun either has just risen or is thinking about setting.

I lightened both photos to make the detail visible. The sky was not that bright or that blue! The obelisk comprises all kinds of human figures striving upward. It's a little disturbing: I thought of people clawing their way to the top, using other people like rungs of a ladder. I also thought of the caterpillar infestations we had a few years ago, fence posts and gates turned into writhing worms.

Man and woman, and man and man statues are more common than woman and woman status, but here is one woman washing another woman's hair. I'm the one with the hat on.

This gate was a celebration of women:

Most of the statues I noticed depicted love, or competition, or camaraderie of some kind. One, though, was more disturbing: one man seemed to be chastising another, driving him forward. Master and slave, I thought. I didn't take my camera out, but I did stop to look.

Poking around on Google, I just learned that Gustav Vigeland designed the image on the Nobel Peace Prize medal, the "Norwegian medal." (The rest are all Swedish.)

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