Post Nature

Year: 2019

Project type: Permanent installation

Location: Ellingsrud, Oslo, Norway

Artist: Ingrid Solvik

Part of the City of Oslo Art Collection

 

A sculpture landscape consisting of a cluster of «lamp posts», where the poles have been bent into unfamiliar shapes and the lighting fixtures are replaced by rotating dichroic plates. The plates are not coloured by pigment, but by interference, which makes the colour appear to change depending on the angle of view. Thus, a person laying in one of the hammocks suspended between the columns will experience completely different colours than a person observing the installation from the nearby footpath. This is meant to invite people to reflect on how the same object or situation may be open to a multitude of different interpretations depending on the observers and their perspectives.

The shape of the columns – which have been twisted and bent, resembling trees and other growing matter – is a way of questioning the habitats we have created for ourselves; our urban jungles, made up of straight lines, right angles and flat surfaces. Even our parks – our «green lungs» – are pre-planned and neatly constructed with trees and paths in straight lines. But does this benefit the inhabitants? Does it make us happier or healthier?