Konst på Farsta T bana

Farsta is the station that lies one beyond our own, this is where our shopping 'mall' and our local library resides.  We most often walk there, but if we can't find what we want, we sometimes take this train back to our stop which is near our favorite grocery store, and our only Asian food store.  This station has its ticketing booth and hall down below in a covered area, but it is a platform station up top.  This means you would miss out on the art unless you exited the station.  This display was created by Gunnar Larson in 1982, Twenty-two years after the station opened.  

Sweetly, the sign says that the artist wanted to create the feeling and warmth of summer that could handle the wind and cold.

I wonder if all the colored tile was already in place when the artist installed the art, or if it was fitted at the same time.  I would assume that it was already there, as so many of the stations were in the early years fitted out with tile.

 

"...when I was little someone pointed out to me....some constellations but the Big Dipper was all I could see..."

While visiting a friend who works/studies at Tekniska Högskolan, I noticed a poster for this:
alba nova 

Open night at the observatory, cheap and early.  Two things that strike my fancy.  I have done this same sort of event at other observatories, in L.A. and in Hobart.  Really, the reason to go is for a chance to look through a large telescope.  My hopes for Stockholm were high, I mean why else have so much darkness?  Only, the darkness here isn't quite true...not a darkness we have in Hobart where getting up high, and away from light pollution is still easy.  Stockholm has a strange, and eternal feeling in-between light.  Half of the year, it's dawn to high noon to dawn again never quite getting dark.  
Then this half of the year it is twilight to night, on a good day.  Other days become one day, as they range from wet gray, to wet gray to wet gray again. This makes the wait for snow seem very long, and the wait for Spring, perhaps eternal.

Our telescope guide explained to us that Stockholm, is too low, too cloudy, and too filled with artificial light to have good scientific viewing.  If the sky had been clear at all though, we would have gotten to see so much more than any hobbyist gets to see from a commercially bought telescope.  I really wanted to see a constellation as it is seen from the North.  But no luck.
We fared better with the lecture, his lecture perhaps, was a bit of a rehearsal for his dissertation but that didn't make it any less interesting.  He works with computer modelling of the gravitational lens effect- one of Einsteins predictions within the 'general theory of relativity'.  If I understood correctly, as scientists can see further and further out into space - this helps them understand what they are looking at.

I felt like he was pitching his audience correctly, as he used 'Interstellar' to help illustrate a point, and we had just gone to see the movie the night before.
I was happy that they showed it in a theater with a balcony.

 

Why live in a city if you do not take advantage of all the activities you can find in a city?  Well, this is what I tell myself when I cast about trying to keep myself occupied.  Maybe occupied is not the word I am thinking, perhaps interested would be closer- because the many, many hours of gray need some extra motivation.  Yesterday all I did was struggle along trying to figure out how to make our Christmas cards and to finish sewing a tortilla warmer (cozy).  
Today, is honestly, truly the sixth day of just pure gray.  The effect is a bit like living in a house with really low ceilings.
I will admit I was a bit too cavalier talking about how much I wanted to experience winter.  I was thinking of Hobart's crisp, clear and bright Autumn days with some of Stockholm's wintery, snowy, picture perfect days and forgetting about the storms, or the weeks of gray in-between the picturesque.

Konst på Högtorget Tbana

This station was built in 1952 and the art was installed in 1998.

I would like to find out if the station was exactly as we see it here, what is often called a bathroom station because of the amount of, and type of tile.

This makes the choice of art more interesting to me, because of the reflective quality of the tones of white light do really create a sense of movement.

Other than that, the old signs are the coolest part of the station.

This year I have noticed brand new signs which I do not like. I hope that these signs will be preserved.

I have trouble remembering which track is headed which direction, and I wish all the stations had the handy sign telling you, but this is the only one I know of.

The artist is Gun Gordillo.

 

The Woodland Chapel, Skogskapellet på Skogskyrkogården

We missed attending 'alla helgonsdag' or if you like 'all saints day', I for one, love a holiday that survives so many years of changes.  Romantically, I am fond of the idea of leaving a lit candle to light a persons way home.

More so, I like the idea of their being enough natural darkness (or is that lack of unnatural light?) that a candle actually has impact.

I decided to walk, on my own, to Skogskyrkogården, which is only about six or seven kilometers via the bike paths.  I went in a direction so that I entered from a direction I had not done before.  Because of that, I finally found one of the chapels I had been unable to find before.

As with all areas of this cemetery, all the details were chosen and planned.  I have a lot of strong feelings about the amount of money that funerals cost. I have strong opinions about all the associated industries, and how I think people should talk about death, quality of life, and medical procedures.  And yet the goth girl inside, who wanders cemeteries because they are parks without the annoying crowds- and because one is surrounded by so many life stories, and so many reminders that a life should be lived, not pondered, not weighed down by worries about aspects that can not be controlled.

Because of that, I could see having a funeral service here, just to get the people I love to come and see what a lovely place it is. Just to remember that they get to walk out - into a life that should be appreciated.

Konst på Slussen

This piece is really interesting in it's ability to be invisible.  Yes, it is white on white - a blend of concrete and marble from around 1966 if I remember correctly- so it doesn't really stand out.  Looking at the photo though, a part of me is amazed at the amount of times I pass it, and I don't even acknowledge it, in fact I regularly forget that it is there.  Slussen is in a popular part of town, and it is a change station for many trips.  There are three exits, and a couple of levels.  This piece of art is near the train card entrance/exit on Götgaten, there is almost always a flow of people moving past, trying to avoid hitting one another, some racing in because they have just seen that they have one minute to make their train, and if it is a whole minute and they go at a fast pace, they can make that train.  The train are only ten minutes apart, but if you take the train a lot one feels those minutes add up, and who wants to think that there were hours a week wasted by not sprinting for a train?

So, I only remember this piece if I pass it during a rare hour where the entry/exit hall is empty, and my eye is not drawn to mapping out a path between bodies.

 

The grates are in a really good place, they are position for you to gaze at while waiting for a train, and for me it is a transfer train, so often I have a five minute wait as that is quickest the two trains overlap from my green line to the red.

The grates were put up in the 1990s, and apparently are in part to stop anyone from racing across the tracks (you have to go up a floor across and then down to reach them- if you are transferring)- they do look different from different angles, light, or the amount of action on the other side.

The wall mural here is also quite pretty if you stop to really look at it, but again this is a hard thing to do when normally there are crowds intent on making their way somewhere.

 

Konten på Västertorp T bana

When I came through this station I was really intrigued, I thought though that the story was made up- alas the story is true and a bit of a mystery!

A Swedish exploring group left by hot air balloon in 1897, meaning to fly over the North Pole.

In 1930 some film, and some remains were found.

The art in this station is inspired by this trip.

I can't help but think that some of Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' series, has borrowed from this story. The Pullman series is one of my all time favorite children series both as a book, and as performed by a full cast in an audio series.

 I was wondering about how stark the art was, it all runs along a long tunnel exit, and the flooring is quite gray- But when you read the story it makes sense.

If you want to read about what was found look here:

Andree Ballon Crash 1897 

Konst på Midsommarkransen T-bana

Midsommar- The longest day of the year in Sweden, where the light barely moves to twilight, and that is only for about one hour. Most if not all people in Sweden have the day off- It is an event that is hard to explain.

If you are just visiting, and do not have a local guide, the day is a bit of a mystery.  Even if you stumble upon a maypole in the park where families and friends are dancing to funny song where everyone knows the dance moves and all the words- mostly you would be lost in confusion. More than that, you might wonder at a tourist spot that is virtually empty on all main roads (everyone is away or at least in a park singing 'Little Frog Little Frog').

I think in part, one has to live through the dark- the true dark that arrives after Christmas holidays- when the snow has melted, but spring seems like a season that may never arrive.  While holding that memory, you try to endure until summer.  Then perhaps the secrets of midsommar start to reveal themselves.

I am not sure your midsommar counts if you do not go skinny dipping in a lake or some large body of water (around 3 a.m. is popular) And, I am not sure you really experience it, unless you make through the entirety of the long sunlit hours- knowing that why go to sleep- the darkness is not coming.

I think, perhaps, without midsommar in your heart, something is lost to you in the art at midsommarkransen-

I really love the copper bands all along the walls.

The wreath is made of carved wood, created and painted by a not an artist but a group working together, is so large that the photo does not do it justice.

Nor can I explain the pagen-forrest loving, communing and transitory nature of the other carving- the flowers at least keep alive the knowledge that summer will return.