In Omnia Paratus » Art

Pictures of the floating world

Jenny Aspelund — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 15:29:19 +0000

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (ca. 1797 – 1861) is one of the great masters of the japansese ukiyo-e style of woodblock prints. Ukiyo-e means pictures of the floating world. The famous writer Asai Ryoi (ca. 1612 – 1691) attempted to describe this idea in his Tales of the floating world.

… Living only for the moment, turning our full attention to the pleasures of the moon, the snow, the cherry blossoms and the maple leaves; singing songs, drinking wine, diverting ourselves in just floating, floating; … refusing to be disheartened, like a gourd floating along with the river current: this is what we call the floating world…

Luncheon of the Boating Party

Jenny Aspelund — Wed, 26 May 2010 10:33:37 +0000

One of the important lessons I learned in life is that time is the key. In the Universe there’s plenty of time. Actually the amount of time out there is so incredibly large we could never fully understand it. For a human being thousand years seems like an eternity. With time it is possible to make great things, brick by brick with lots of patience. I often think about this man in the movie “The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain” who paints the same painting by Renoir once every year and stacks it into the closet. This is his goal in life to be able to paint this single painting to perfection. He doesn’t show his paintings to anyone, he’s not interested in their opinion. He just wants to make something beautiful. Just something beautifully perfect in every single detail for once in his life. It’s the girl with the water glass who is puzzling him. There is something special about her. Looking at her everyone else seem to fade away into the background.

Weekend in Helsinki

Jenny Aspelund — Tue, 25 May 2010 14:58:59 +0000

I flew to Helsinki for the weekend to visit my aunt who lives in the part of the city called Vuosaari. When we were strolling through Uutela nature park she told me about the finnish artist Miina Äkkijyrkkä who used to live there. Äkkijyrkkä is her artist name and means precipitous, if this is referring to her art or her person I don’t know. For fifteen years she rented a farm in the park from the municipality and lived there with her cows and cats. The cows were her inspiration and she made huge sculptures out of parts of old cars. She also made the pattern Unelmia (means dream) for Marimekko. Eventually she was forced to leave because the place looked like a garbage dump, it was a huge controversy in Finland. How can there be art without a little bit of a mess?

We walked up to one of the houses to take a closer look at the sculptures. The house looked like nobody lived there for years, the ground covered with garbage. Rusty metal, old mattresses, large pieces of plastic and wood and on top of one of the piles a grinning cow cranium. Suddenly a sturdy lady with long blond hair and piercing blue eyes appeared from nowhere screaming at us. Apparently she still lived there, in hiding from the police who tried to force her out. She refused to leave since there weren’t anywhere for her to go with her sculptures. When she understood that we were just there admiring her work she cooled down, trying to get us to buy instead. But when my aunt asked the prize of one of the smaller cow heads she blurted out – 25 000 €. I’m not sure she will sell very much with prices like that, but maybe that isn’t her intention. I’m not sure what to think about this lady, but one has to admire people who have the guts to create something beautiful even if it seems crazy to others. She truly is a gifted artist, there’s no question about that.

Thank you very much!

Jenny Aspelund — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 13:48:09 +0000

Picture from the Royal Library

In the entrance of the National Library of Sweden, The Royal Library, one will find two sculptures. They are called Reading woman and Writing man. It took Christian Eriksson two years to finish them.
On the web page one can read that he unveiled them in February 1912. No one was there to thank him. He simply took the sheet off, handed it to the curator and walked out the door.

To find models for his sculpture Christian Eriksson went to the Royal Dramatic Theatre’s acting school. Young actress Lisa Nyberg met the criteria. When she wasn’t needed anymore she received a bust of herself in plaster. To be able to transport it home she received some change so that she could take the tramway home with the bust.

/stg